Unlike West Virginia, New Hampshire is relatively prosperous, which makes an opioid crisis here seem all the more jarring. Researchers at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., have been studying the issue to try to understand why the state’s opioid problem is so dire. Beyond that, the researchers say, doctors here have long prescribed “significantly higher rates” of opioid pain relievers, almost twice the national average. When the government cracked down on legal painkillers, New Hampshire residents were primed to seek out illegal street drugs. PhotoFor one New Hampshire family, the opioid crisis plays out every day, an unending cycle of worry, hope and chaos.

Source: New York Times January 21, 2018 07:52 UTC