The Indiana State Hospital Association, the State Department of Health and the Indiana State Medical Association collaborated to craft new guidelines that focus on management of outpatient acute pain.

Brown County is known for farming, shopping, historical sites and its state park. However, rural parts of the state are also becoming known as the center of the opioid epidemic.

Overdose deaths in southern Indiana's Clark County dropped from 90 to 60 between 2016 and 2017, a 33 percent decrease, according to preliminary data.

Terre Haute's lawsuit only targets three opioid drug distributors. The county's lawsuit names those same distributors, along with more than 10 opioid manufacturers.

Residents living in rural Indiana are looking at different ways to fight the opioid epidemic. Around 400 Hoosiers joined Indiana's Lieutenant Governor for a rural opioid addiction symposium Friday in Lebanon.

The Clark County Health Department is waiting on final numbers but said tests so far show 60 drug-related deaths in 2017. That compares to 90 in 2016.

Indiana continues to rank poorly in a number of health measures and proposals to address these factors could help.

Indiana legalized syringe exchange programs in 2015, but requires county governments to re-approve them every two years.

From May 2016 to May 2017, Indiana saw a 28.6 percent rise in deaths, while the national rate increased by about 17 percent.

The County Council has approved buying a cooler that can hold up to eight corpses.