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Overdose deaths in West Virginia declined during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, health officials said. From March 2021 to March 2022, West Virginia saw 1,485 overdose deaths, according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was a decrease of 3.6% from the 1,541 deaths for the year ending in March 2021. (9/8)

A staggering total of 109 soldiers assigned to Fort Bragg died in 2020 and 2021. Dozens have lost their lives there to drug overdoses. Now, their families are demanding answers — and accountability. (Harp, 9/4)

Nick Carusillo died when he was hit by multiple vehicles on a Georgia interstate, just days after he was abruptly discharged from an addiction treatment center. Now his parents hope a substantial jury verdict in their favor will prompt change that helps others suffering from mental illness and substance abuse. (Brumback, 9/7)

In Michigan and across the country, drug dealers are selling fentanyl that looks like candy in an attempt to lure young people and get them hooked on the powerful synthetic opioid, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. “Rainbow fentanyl — fentanyl pills and powder that come in a variety of bright colors, shapes, and sizes — is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram warned in a prepared statement. (Kovanis, 9/7)

Nothing has made the nation’s addiction epidemic more deadly than fentanyl’s infiltration of the drug supply. Yet in more than a dozen states, tools used to detect the ultra-potent synthetic opioid are still classified as drug paraphernalia — making it a crime to possess or distribute them. (Facher, 9/8)