Draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence said they can do ‘more harm than good’.

Painkillers like paracetamol 'should not be prescribed for chronic pain'

Opioid use has been linked to the deaths of more than 400,000 people over the past two decades in America.

Drug firms in America reach £200 million out of court opioid settlement

Sesame Workshop is exploring the backstory of Karli, a bright green, yellow-haired friend of Elmo's whose mother is battling addiction.

A judge in Oklahoma has found Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries helped fuel the state’s opioid crisis and ordered it to pay £469m.

Former policeman Dan Gosnell took drugs from an evidence room, where seized goods and drugs were stored. 

Matt Hancock said the measure would help tackle the growing numbers of people becoming dependent on opiate-based painkillers.

The opioid epidemic is so extreme in the US city of Manchester, that the drugs are killing almost 100 of the 100,000 residents each year.