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Krista Sizemore's brain was crying out for heroin. But she knew she was pregnant. She knew her baby needed her to stay safe. She knew what could happen if she used again. ... But when Sizemore tried to get help from a top addiction doctor in Northern Kentucky, the insurance blocked the first attempt. ... During a nationwide epidemic in which one American dies every 19 minutes from opioid or heroin overdose, addiction doctors say insurance barriers to medication that can save lives are instead putting them at risk for death. (DeMio and O'Donnell, 9/25)

In the first six months of this year, more than 80 people died from an overdose of heroin and other opioids. And the epidemic doesn’t appear to be slowing, according to law enforcement, health care and treatment officials who met for a roundtable on drug abuse and diversion in the Twin Cities last week. At the meeting, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, a St. Louis-based company, announced the donation of 30,000 drug deactivation pouches that will be handed out to people locally who want to easily dispose of opioids at home. Up to 1.35 million prescription pills, patches or liquid doses of opioids can be destroyed if every pouch is filled to its 45-pill capacity. (Chanen, 9/25)

The three-day program, held at the Betty Ford Center in Irving, strives to help children 12 and younger learn about addiction and teaches them that their parents’ problems are out of their control. "Often in families where there is addiction, children have to grow up too fast,” said Jerry Moe, national director of children's programs at the Betty Ford Center. (Toledo, 9/25)

A new video uploaded Friday shows another case of a child standing helplessly by an adult unconscious from a drug overdose. The scene, filmed by an onlooker in a supermarket, is the most recent public example of children who witness their parents' overdose. Earlier this month, the Ohio police department shared a graphic photo of a 4-year-old in a car with two overdosed adults sprawled out in the front seats, hoping to make a very public statement about the dangers of the continuing opioid overdose epidemic throughout the United States and its unintended consequences on children. (Tan, 9/23)

Jamie Landrum has been a police officer for two years in District 3 on the west side of the Cincinnati. In late August, the city was hit by 174 overdoses in six days. Landrum says officers were scarce. "We were literally going from one heroin overdose, and then being on that one, and hearing someone come over [the radio] and say, 'I have no more officers left,' " Landrum says. Three more people overdosed soon after that. (Harper, 9/25)

Authorities were trying Sunday to discover the types of drugs involved in a spate of overdoses that killed seven people in the Cleveland area a day earlier. The deaths Saturday was the latest outbreak of drug overdose deaths in Ohio. (9/25)

Tennessee has made progress in fighting the opioid epidemic. The state has declared the massive problem the No. 1 public health crisis in the state and painkiller prescriptions have fallen from 8.5 million to 7.8 million over the past three years. Companies like BlueCross BlueShield Tennessee are funding efforts to keep prescription drugs from the wrong hands and medical schools are working with a future generation of doctors to curb overprescribing pills. (Plazas, 9/25)

The terrified toddler in the pink pajamas prods, pulls and cries, but she is powerless to wake her mother. The 36-year-old mother, identified by news outlets as Mandy McGowen, lies unconscious in the toy aisle of a Lawrence, Mass., Family Dollar store, after an apparent drug overdose, police said. Even for law enforcement veterans such as Lawrence Police Chief James Fitzpatrick, the dramatic video shot by a store employee Sunday is hard to watch. (Holley, 9/24)