Americans' treacherous relationship with prescription painkillers and other drugs appears to be worsening, with fatal overdoses up 7 percent in one year - and twice that rate of increase in New Jersey and triple in Pennsylvania, according to new federal statistics...(Philadelphia Inquirer)

District Attorney John Morganelli said he backs a proposal in Harrisburg that would encourage users to seek help when someone they are with overdoses and needs medical attention.  Under the bill, a person reporting an overdose would be guaranteed immunity from prosecution for possessing drugs, a prospect that might otherwise cause him or her to hesitate before picking up the phone...(Morning Call)

A proposed state law that would grant immunity to people who report drug overdoses in Pennsylvania took an important step forward Tuesday.  The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would bar authorities from prosecuting someone who seeks help for an overdose victim....(WFMZ)

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli has thrown his support behind a Pennsylvania bill that would grant immunity to minor drug offenders who report drug overdoses....(Lehigh Valley Live)

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli is pushing for an immunity bill in drug overdose situations...If written into law, the bill would grant immunity from prosecution on some minor drug charges for people who report drug overdoses to emergency...(WFMZ)

A surge in heroin use in rural Pennsylvania has prompted state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-23, Loyalsock Township, to seek input from law enforcement, the judicial system and others to craft legislative policies that may help to curb the use of these and other opioids...Yaw, chairman of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania's board, called the rise of heroin use in rural Pennsylvania a public health crisis.....(Daily Item)

The House Judiciary Committee is expected to vote Tuesday on a bill that guarantees immunity from prosecution on some minor drug charges for people who report drug overdoses to emergency responders....(Patriot News)

Tracy Lawrence-Felton is trying to help other families prevent what happened to hers.  Her son, Aaron, died four years ago of a heroin overdose at age 20 in Hanover, York County. She remembers not believing heroin could take her son's life and the moment that changed with a knock at her door at 5:51 a.m....(Fox 43)

Recovery for these young addicts requires a uniquely difficult path. Heroin is a powerful drug, with a particularly hard bottom that comes quickly for the addict. While some alcoholics can function for decades before they finally seek help in their 50s or 60s, defeated heroin addicts are walking into rehabilitation centers in droves in their teens or early 20s....(Delaware Online)

(Rhode Island) Health officials are investigating a sharp rise in deaths in Rhode Island due to overdoses from the drug fentanyl, a prescription painkiller that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine...(Yahoo News)

(Delaware) The House gave final approval Thursday to legislation that provides wider distribution of the medicine Naloxone, making the drug available without a prescription to help reverse life-threatening heroin overdoses....(Delaware Online)

(Georgia) Holly Springs Police Department Sergeant Nathan Ernst was the first officer to arrive on scene, beating the EMTs. In front of two helpless family members, he administered a medication called naloxone into the woman's nostril...(Business Insider)

(Minnesota) Advocates of a new law that gives first responders and others access to a drug that can stop an opiate overdose have started training people on how to administer it...   (KTTC)

(Delaware) Panelists dispensed the brutal details of Delaware's heroin epidemic at a community forum Tuesday night. The drama arrived with 700 people who packed John Dickinson High School's auditorium seeking answers - and help....(Delaware Online)

(Maine) Two people who were found unconscious and not breathing Tuesday night in Gray were revived with the overdose antidote Narcan, according to the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office....(Portland Press Herald)

(New Mexico) New Mexico health and human services officials say the state Medicaid program now covers the cost of a medicine used to reverse drug overdoses...(Santa Fe New Mexican)

(New York) On Wednesday, the governor stood with legislators to announce an agreement on a set of bills to improve access to addiction treatment and stiffen penalties for doctors and pharmacists who illegally sell opioid pills - a frequent precursor to heroin addiction....(New York Times)

Reports from a new study at McGill University indicate that there are a greater number of deaths from commonly prescribed painkillers than from heroin and cocaine overdose combined. This study is the first of its kind and highlights a huge public health issue.  Death from prescribed painkillers has dramatically increased in recent years with 16,000 US deaths in 2010...(Red Orbit)

Across the nation, officials are sounding an alarm about heroin use.  The U.S. attorney general calls it an "urgent public health crisis," and television news routinely describes it as an epidemic...(Philadelphia Inquirer)

(New England) Facing a heroin crisis that they say has reached epidemic proportions, the governors of five New England states met here on Tuesday to devise a regional strategy to combat the rise in overdoses and deaths from opioid abuse....(New York Times)

(New York) Cheektowaga police officers brought a woman back to consciousness after she overdosed on heroin Monday...Just two weeks ago, Cheektowaga police supervisors began carrying naloxone, and Monday marked the first time they used the drug in the field. ...(Buffalo News)

(Connecticut) Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's signature on a new law aims to reduce the numbers of opiate drug overdoses in Connecticut by making it easier for police and anyone else to use the overdose antidote called Narcan...(WTNH)

Project Lazarus, a community-based opioid overdose prevention program, has dramatically cut overdose deaths in Wilkes County, North Carolina. It has been so successful it's being rolled out statewide and implemented in military bases and tribal groups....(Medscape)

The number of deaths involving commonly prescribed painkillers is higher than the number of deaths by overdose from heroin and cocaine combined, according to researchers at McGill University. In a first-of-its-kind review of existing research, the McGill team has put the spotlight on a major public health problem: the dramatic increase in deaths due to prescribed painkillers...(Science Daily)

(New Jersey) Gov. Chris Christie will announce the statewide expansion Tuesday of a program that allows police officers to carry and administer a drug that can quickly reverse a heroin overdose...(NBC 10)

(New Jersey) Gov. Chris Christie is expanding a pilot program that allows police officers to carry and administer a drug that can quickly reverse heroin overdoses. Christie will announce Tuesday morning that police in every county, as well as state troopers, will now be trained to administer Narcan...(ABC 27)

(Massachusetts) Manet is one of 19 medical sites around Massachusetts that dispenses the life-saving drug to family members of substance abusers, community outreach workers and even addicts themselves. The program is part of a state initiative to take on what U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has called an "urgent and growing public health crisis"...(Reuters)

(New York) At some point between his home and the hospital, first responders gave Mr. Ruhry a shot of naloxone, a medication that is an antidote to opioids found in heroin and some prescription drugs.  After the overdose, Mr. Ruhry worked on making himself a better person...(Wall Street Journal)

(Canada) Several Canadian cities are looking to expand the use of a medication that has been shown to save lives by countering the effects of a life-threatening prescription drug overdose....(CTV News)