Experts support the change and hope it will endure past the pandemic.
Substance abuse
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Dying in the shadows: What’s the full impact of the pandemic?
As COVID-19 tears at safety nets, questions about how to count death totals surface.
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Support groups grapple with social distance and isolation
As mental health services and addiction recovery groups move online, a resilient community adapts to COVID-19.
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Do wilderness therapy programs really work?
The expensive treatments for troubled teens have been around for years — but researchers still aren’t sure whether wilderness makes a difference.
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See what a tech production surge means for Tesla workers
With few housing options in Storey County, Nevada, new employees are finding alternative living situations.
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Montanans must rely on each other in crisis
A network of local providers steps in as vital mental health centers close.
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‘Recovery is possible — and we’re examples of it’
Peer support from the recently recovered helps those in active addiction.
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Tribes lead the battle to combat a national opioid crisis
Native communities have been flooded with prescription pain pills.
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Bail out coal communities, not coal executives
The good times are over for the coal industry. It’s time to move on.
Posted inJune 12, 2017: The Big Swing
Hooligan Island; Tree-hoppers in Joshua Tree; Kanye for president?
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
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West Obsessed: How Forest Service agents busted a maple-poaching gang
The writers and editors of High Country News discuss Washington’s timber crime.
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West Obsessed: How pain pills spread in one Colorado town
The staff of High Country News discuss the cycle of addiction in the rural West.
Posted inFebruary 20, 2017: Overdosed
When private pain becomes a community problem
How a rural clinic sparked a small-town addiction crisis.
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A different type of addiction
In Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, alcohol claims more lives than other drugs, but now an alternative treatment program could help.
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Inside a small-town addict’s struggle to get clean
Could an innovative new program help turn the tide on opioid addiction in rural New Mexico?
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Española has tried everything to stop drug overdoses
What we can learn from the fight against addiction in a small New Mexico town.
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How a police chief used compassion to combat his community’s drug problem
The approach taken by Gloucester, Massacusetts, might falter in New Mexico, where it’s desperately needed.
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The San Luis Valley’s controversial needle exchange idea
Local leaders contemplate a program to address drug-associated health risks with a rocky history.
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How to find its high-risk drug users before it’s too late
Rio Arriba’s health care providers are pulling together to treat patients and prevent overdoses.
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A community curbs pain pill abuse, but heroin addiction grows
Interventions intended to reduce over-prescription of pain medicine may unintentionally be feeding a rise in heroin use in southwest Colorado.