Across Colombia, Belgium, Sweden, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United States, cocaine and synthetic opioids are reshaping communities in very different ways. This investigation follows coca production, international trafficking, youth recruitment, gang violence, drug markets, fentanyl, and xylazine while examining how organized crime and addiction intersect. Through law enforcement, community organizations, people with lived experience, and public health workers, the episode connects the global cocaine trade with European gang networks and the overdose crisis in North America, as well as prevention, treatment, and harm-reduction efforts.
Across Arkansas, individuals and families share deeply personal experiences of opioid addiction, overdose, loss, and recovery. Their stories reveal how prescription opioids, heroin, and fentanyl have shaped the state's opioid crisis, while experts explain how dependence and opioid use disorder can develop and why the drug supply has become increasingly dangerous. Alongside accounts of repeated overdose and lives lost are stories of survival and recovery, highlighting the work of healthcare professionals, advocates, families, and communities responding to the crisis and supporting people as they rebuild their lives.
San Diego County has become a major battleground in the fentanyl crisis, with counterfeit pills, drug trafficking, and online drug markets contributing to a devastating rise in overdose deaths. Families, survivors, law enforcement, medical professionals, and community advocates share their experiences while examining how fentanyl reaches local communities and why young people are particularly vulnerable. The investigation also explores efforts to save lives through naloxone, fentanyl test strips, low-barrier care, and medications for opioid use disorder, showing how prevention and treatment have become critical parts of the response.
What can the United States learn from Canada’s approach to the overdose crisis? ABC7 News reporter Tara Campbell travels to British Columbia to examine harm reduction and the services designed to keep people who use drugs alive and connected to care. Through personal stories and expert perspectives, the documentary explores supervised consumption, fentanyl, homelessness, trauma, stigma, and barriers to treatment. It also looks inside Insite, North America’s first legally sanctioned supervised consumption site, while examining the broader debate over whether similar approaches could help communities struggling with overdose in the United States.
Fentanyl has transformed Ontario’s opioid crisis, affecting people who use drugs, families, healthcare workers, law enforcement, and communities across the province. This three-part series combines personal stories with expert perspectives to examine fentanyl, prescription opioid addiction, overdose, and the challenges people face when seeking treatment. It also explores harm reduction, public education, law-enforcement responses, and efforts to prevent further deaths. Along the way, people directly affected by addiction share their experiences, showing why understanding the crisis requires looking beyond the drug itself to the people and circumstances behind it.
Families, harm-reduction workers, and experts share their experiences of North Carolina’s fentanyl epidemic and the devastating toll of overdose across the state. The documentary examines how the opioid crisis evolved from prescription medications to heroin and illicit fentanyl, while exploring drug trafficking, pharmaceutical accountability, and the state’s response to rising deaths. It also looks at harm-reduction efforts, including naloxone and fentanyl test strips, and follows people working directly with communities affected by addiction. Their stories show both the human cost of the crisis and the efforts underway to prevent further loss.
Parents who lost their children to fentanyl share deeply personal stories of addiction, overdose, and grief as the crisis takes a growing toll on young people in Fresno, California. Alongside their experiences, medical professionals, law enforcement, and frontline workers discuss the dangers of fentanyl and the challenges of responding to overdoses within their communities. The film also examines how substance use can remain hidden from families until it is too late, while emphasizing the need for greater awareness, education, and support for young people and their parents.
Families across Texas share the devastating impact of fentanyl as overdose deaths rise and increasingly affect young people. Through grieving parents, advocates, survivors, and law enforcement, the investigation explores the dangers of counterfeit pills and the trafficking networks bringing illicit fentanyl into the United States. It also follows parents and organizations who have turned personal loss into advocacy, raising awareness about the risks facing their communities and working to prevent further deaths while law enforcement confronts the challenges of disrupting the fentanyl supply.
Fentanyl has transformed the overdose crisis in St. Louis, where the synthetic opioid has become a leading contributor to drug-related deaths. Through people in recovery, families, advocates, and treatment professionals, the film explores the human impact of fentanyl while examining where the illicit supply comes from and how the opioid crisis reached this point. It also looks at medications for opioid use disorder, naloxone, relapse, racial disparities in overdose deaths, and local efforts to expand treatment and recovery support throughout the community.
After years of reporting on addiction and the opioid crisis, journalist Angela Kennecke experienced the crisis personally when her 21-year-old daughter, Emily, died from fentanyl poisoning. She shares her family’s story while continuing to investigate the issues affecting other families across South Dakota. Through personal stories and expert perspectives, the special explores fentanyl, overdose, stigma, Good Samaritan laws, drug courts, medication-assisted treatment, and recovery. It also follows Kennecke as she turns the loss of her daughter into advocacy through Emily’s Hope, an organization dedicated to prevention, awareness, and recovery.
