Resource Center

Stories

The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast.

These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need.

Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:



Search results for "drug treatment" ...

  • Methadone, a Costly Fix

    A News Tribune investigation found that methadone treatment in Minnesota is widely abused, has led to overdoses and deaths, sees few complete the treatment, has dealers selling the drug on the streets, and costs taxpayers millions each year.

    Tags: Methadone; methadone overdoses; methadone treatmentl; drugs; drug dealers; taxpayers

    By Brandon Stahl

    Duluth News-Tribune (Duluth, Minn.)

    2012

  • Seniors for Sale

    A look into Washington's adult homes for vulnerable adults reveals that thousands of elderly were drugged into submission or left without proper medical treatment for weeks by amateur caregivers. At least 236 deaths were believed to be the result of neglect or abuse in the homes. To reduce the state's Medicaid burden, thousands of nursing-home residents were relocated to less-expensive homes which brought harm to many of the adults.

    Tags: elderly; negligence; abuse; Medicaid;

    By Michael J. Berens

    Seattle Times

    2010

  • Buy and Bust: New York City's War on Drugs at 40

    In this collection, it explores the four major drugs that have affected New York City. These are heroin, cocaine, crack, and marijuana, which tell part of the story of the past four decades. They “traced each drug’s introduction into the city, their era of popularity, key players, law enforcement efforts, prosecution, treatment efforts, current use levels, and prices, etc.” Also, they found that there are as many hard-core users today as there were over the past 40 years.

    Tags: New York City; drugs; drug war; heroin; cocaine; crack; marijuana; arrests

    By Sean Gardiner; Jarrett Murphy; Lizzie Ford-Madrid

    City Limits (New York)

    2009

  • America's Broken Healthcare System

    This series sheds light on the hidden practices that boost pateints' medical bills and can impede their ability to obtain treatment or insurance.

    Tags: 401(k); prescription drugs; medical bill; heath insurance; medicine cabinet

    By Chad Terhune; Robert Berner

    Business Week

    2008

  • Locking up criminals locks in rising costs

    The paper examined the state's philosophy on being tough on crime but in a time of economic downturn, it may be better to increase the use of less costly probation for nonviolent offenders.

    Tags: incarceration; drug problem; sentencing; imprisonment rate; computer-assisted analysis; treatment;

    By Steve Kanigher; Jeff German; Alex Richards;

    Sun (Las Vegas, Nev.)

    2008

  • The Evidence Gap

    The nations' medical bill last year exceeded $2.7 trillin -- nearly as much as the projected total cost of the Iraq war. If it were medical money well spend, there might be few cries to "reform" the American health care system. But by some estimates, one-third or more of the medical care received by patients in this country may be virtually worthless. The nation is wasting hundreds of billions of dollars each year on superfluous treatments -- money that otherwise could by spent, for example , on providing health insurance for every child, woman and man int his country who currently have no coverage. A team of science and business reporters from The New York Times set out to explain how and why the United States is spending so much on health care with so relatively little to show for the money, They discovered a gaping chasm between scientific evidence and the practice of medicine. In an in-depth series of articles, told through real doctors and patients, and based on information they dug up that was frequently unflattering to medical providers, companies and regulators, the Times team documented many disturbing instances of "The Evidence Gap."

    Tags: health care; CT angiograms; Avastin; cancer treatment; reckless spending; Food and Drug Administration; mammograms

    By Alex Berenson; Barry Meier; Gina Kolotz; Elizabeth Rosenthal; Andrew Pollack; Gardiner Harris; Reed Abelson

    New York Times

    2008

  • Careless Detention

    Four-part series on the medical treatment of immigrant detainees in the United States. Goldstein and Priest exposed the shoddy, unethical and, at times, fatal treatment of immigrants during their detentions and as they were being deported to their native countries. Their stories led readers deep inside America's network of immigration prisons--a world that had grown exponentially in the years since 9/11, yet remained largely unknown and hidden from view. Their stories documented the deaths of 83 detainees. And in one of the most stunning revelation, Goldstein and Priest disclosed the previously unreported scope of a practice of forcible sedation of immigrants with dangerous psychotropic drugs during deportation to their native countries; they found more than 250 instances in which the drugs were used on people with no history of psychiatric problems. Their stories also revealed that the most prevalent cause of death among the immigrant detainees is suicide, including the hangings of detainees known to be in such fragile mental health that they had been assigned suicide watchers. They profiled the slipshod treatment of an ailing Korean immigrant, a legal U.S. resident for three decades detained in a rail in the Arizona desert, with a history of recurrent cancer. And they documented the flawed medical practices, bureaucratic ineptitude, sloppy record-keeping and staff shortages that cause detainees who are sick to suffer and sometimes to die.

    Tags: detained immigrants; September 11th; 9/11; medical treatment of prisoners; immigration prison; HIPAA

    By Amy Goldstein; Dana Priest

    Washington Post

    2008

  • This is work release?

    Fox 6 found that Milwaukee County had lax oversight and monitoring of "felony inmates who'd been granted community access for work, school, or treatment."

    Tags: prison; felony; work release; confidential sources; hidden camera; job; drugs; alcohol; murder; Wisconsin

    By Bryan Polcyn; Patrick McCraney; Craig Hofer; Dave Michuda

    WITI-TV (Milwaukee)

    2007

  • The "Bupe" Fix

    "This three-part, multimedia series examined the U.S. government's role in helping to bring the drug buprenorphine to market as a treatment for addiction to heroin and other narcotics and the consequences of those decisions. The series found that the drug, though widely hailed by many specialists in the field as a highly effective treatment, is beginning to cause the sorts of problems it was intended to displace."

    Tags: heroin; addiction; buprenorphine; drugs; narcotics; drug abuse

    By Fred Schulte; Doug Donovan; Erika Niedowski

    Baltimore Sun

    2007

  • Dangerous Remedy

    Robert Little of The (Baltimore) Sun reported that the U.S. Army has injected over 1000 soldiers wounded in Iraq with a medicine designed for hemophiliacs despite the fact that it is dangerous for people with normal blood. It can give them blood clots that could cause strokes and heart attacks. It costs $6000 per dose. Civilian doctors "have largely rejected it as a standard treatment for trauma patients." Army doctors say, in their experience, the drug saves lives by stopping hemorrhaging. Little says “Doctors in Iraq's emergency rooms, however, almost never care for their patients long enough to see firsthand whether blood clots or other complications have developed." Little reports that "the drug has never been subjected to a large-scale clinical trial to verify that it works and is safe for patients without hemophilia."

    Tags: military medical system; Iraq; coagulant; Institute for Surgical Research; Germany; military hospitals; Food and Drug Administration; FDA; U.S. Department of Defense; DoD; Marines; Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs; U.S. Army Surgeon General; HIPPA; actionable intelligence; Recombinant Activated Factor VII; Novo Nordisk; coagulopathic bleeding;

    By Robert Little

    Baltimore Sun

    2006