The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated another public health crisis that has plagued America for years: drug overdoses.
According to new data from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 107,000 Americans died from overdoses last year, which equates to a death about every five minutes.
The figures continue a disturbing trend. In 2020, overdose deaths climbed to more than 91,000 in the US — up from 70,000 the previous year. Most of the deaths are thought to have involved a powerful synthetic opioid called fentanyl.
Nowhere is this crisis more apparent than in Appalachia, a region of the country long associated with poverty and addiction.
Towns with names such as Coal Grove and Ironton hark back to a time when mining and heavy industry fuelled a bustling economy in places like Lawrence County, Ohio, where communities provided the raw materials used in the skyscrapers and bridges of New York, Chicago and beyond.
Today, most of the county's steel mills and mines have fallen silent, and many communities are now dealing with the fallout of lost jobs and addiction.
The latter has played a significant role in the life of Kathy Ross, executive director of Lawrence County Recovery, an organisation that provides addiction counselling, housing and other services for people with dependency problems.
Having lost several family members and close friends to overdoses, she was no stranger to the perils of addiction. And the disease eventually hit even closer to home.
“I was a nurse who got addicted,” she says. “I was working two jobs. If I took four [pills], I could work a 24-hour shift.”
The painkillers she was easily able to acquire from a doctor friend, included Vicodin, a prescription opioid pain reliever, and others.
“I got away with that for about a year.”
Then she ended up in prison for four years for falsifying documents. She says no one knew she was an addict until she was arrested.
“I’d never even had a speeding ticket,” she says.
“I knew that there were families like ours that had dealt with this and there was nobody to help me or my family. I was never offered treatment.”
These experiences prompted Ross to help people in the region struggling with addiction, and three years ago, she founded Lawrence County Recovery, which now helps more than 100 people.
“I probably field about 20 phone calls a day,” she says.
The state of West Virginia, a five-minute drive across the Ohio River from Coal Grove, had the highest death rate in 2018, according to the CDC, while Ohio ranked fourth in the country.
Research shows that teenagers are not using drugs in increasing numbers or amounts, but that the drugs' ingredients are far more deadly.
Last year, more than three quarters of all teenage drug fatalities involved fentanyl.
For Dr Ben Mack, the Lawrence County coroner since 2018, fentanyl is the new heroin.
“We usually have about 80 cases in the coroner’s office a year; 48 of those last year were overdoses,” he says.
“All but three of those were fentanyl-related deaths.”
In 2020, the county reported 24 overdose fatalities — half the number reported in 2021.
Fentanyl, a synthetic drug, has become the deadliest illicit drug in America.
Developed initially to help relieve pain among cancer patients, fentanyl is ravaging communities across Appalachia and beyond.
This is due in part, some believe, to prisons and law enforcement being slow to prosecute drug dealers, fearing Covid-19 outbreaks in jails.
Two milligrams of fentanyl can kill and part of the reason it is so deadly is that it is being mixed with heroin and cocaine, which are less dangerous.
“The fentanyl is really tough because it’s so concentrated that it can be shipped through the mail and some of it can be shipped from China, potentially,” Dr Mack says.
The US Drug Enforcement Agency reported that most fentanyl is manufactured in China and Mexico, and is thereafter smuggled into the US.
Its high potency means that drug cartels and manufacturers can compress it into highly concentrated, pill-size form that makes detection extremely difficult.
People like Ross are left to deal with the consequences in a part of America already struggling to cope with poverty and inequality, exacerbated by widespread job losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The assistance Lawrence County Recovery provides includes housing at a discounted rate of $100 per month once a person secures a job, in addition to transport to and from work or school.
“A lot of people don’t have a place to go to,” says Ross, whose organisation employs 78 people.
“We never meant to have more than 12 people working [but] the need is just there.”
She says she has worked with people between 15 and 70 years old.
Dr Mack has also observed a broad age range when it comes to overdose deaths.
The average age of death is 45, he says, which may sound a little old, “but I think it’s because older people don’t have the reserve to tolerate much of an overdose … and younger people might be doing drugs together and have Narcan available, while older folks are trying to keep it hidden — they’re doing it alone”.
Naloxone, sold as Narcan, is a “rescue drug” that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose if administered in time.
Ross and Dr Mack say it should be more readily available in their Appalachian communities, where treatment and services are in short supply and where a conservative culture still considers addiction as an issue of personal failure rather than an illness.
“We have a local government saying, ‘we don’t want you here, we don’t need you’,” Ross says.
“Well, either the government wants people to die or they don’t.”
'Laal Kaptaan'
Director: Navdeep Singh
Stars: Saif Ali Khan, Manav Vij, Deepak Dobriyal, Zoya Hussain
Rating: 2/5
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
Squads
India: Kohli (c), Rahul, Shaw, Agarwal, Pujara, Rahane, Vihari, Pant (wk), Ashwin, Jadeja, Kuldeep, Shami, Umesh, Siraj, Thakur
West Indies: Holder (c), Ambris, Bishoo, Brathwaite, Chase, Dowrich (wk), Gabriel, Hamilton, Hetmyer, Hope, Lewis, Paul, Powell, Roach, Warrican, Joseph
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
The bio
Favourite food: Japanese
Favourite car: Lamborghini
Favourite hobby: Football
Favourite quote: If your dreams don’t scare you, they are not big enough
Favourite country: UAE
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Eco%20Way%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20December%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ivan%20Kroshnyi%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Electric%20vehicles%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Bootstrapped%20with%20undisclosed%20funding.%20Looking%20to%20raise%20funds%20from%20outside%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
RESULTS
6.30pm: Emirates Holidays Maiden (TB) Dh 82,500 (Dirt) 1,900m
Winner: Lady Snazz, Richard Mullen (jockey), Satish Seemar (trainer).
7.05pm: Arabian Adventures Maiden (TB) Dh 82,500 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Zhou Storm, Connor Beasley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
7.40pm: Emirates Skywards Handicap (TB) Dh 82,500 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Rich And Famous, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
8.15pm: Emirates Airline Conditions (TB) Dh 120,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner: Rio Angie, Sam Hitchcock, Doug Watson.
8.50pm: Emirates Sky Cargo (TB) Dh 92,500 (D) 1,400m
Winner: Kinver Edge, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
9.15pm: Emirates.com (TB) Dh 95,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Firnas, Xavier Ziani, Salem bin Ghadayer.
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
HOSTS
T20 WORLD CUP
2024: US and West Indies; 2026: India and Sri Lanka; 2028: Australia and New Zealand; 2030: England, Ireland and Scotland
ODI WORLD CUP
2027: South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia; 2031: India and
Bangladesh
CHAMPIONS TROPHY
2025: Pakistan; 2029: India
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Pad Man
Dir: R Balki
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Radhika Apte
Three-and-a-half stars
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
About Takalam
Date started: early 2020
Founders: Khawla Hammad and Inas Abu Shashieh
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: HealthTech and wellness
Number of staff: 4
Funding to date: Bootstrapped
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
'Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower'
Michael Beckley, Cornell Press
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 178hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 280Nm at 1,350-4,200rpm
Transmission: seven-speed dual-clutch auto
Price: from Dh209,000
On sale: now
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
The specs: 2017 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali
Price, base / as tested Dh207,846 / Dh220,000
Engine 6.2L V8
Transmission Eight-speed automatic
Power 420hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque 624Nm @ 4,100rpm
Fuel economy, combined 13.5L / 100km
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The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Brief scoreline:
Tottenham 1
Son 78'
Manchester City 0
MATCH INFO
Crawley Town 3 (Tsaroulla 50', Nadesan 53', Tunnicliffe 70')
Leeds United 0
