With heroin and opiate use growing in the nation and region, the Pennsylvania House Democratic Policy Committee has scheduled a hearing on opiate abuse for Thursday morning in Bristol Township...(Philadelphia Inquirer)

PerformCare, a national full-service managed behavioral health care organization, will host "Crossroads: Converging Paths in Search of Sound Policy and Practice of Opioid Dependence Management" September 11 - 12, 2014, at the Penn Stater Hotel and Conference Center, State College, Pa...(Market Watch)

With funding from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy's Program Evaluation and Research Unit (PERU) has launched a statewide overdose prevention website called OverdoseFreePA, which aims to support efforts within participating counties to reduce overdose and overdose deaths...(UMPC)

A county in our region is one of several in Pennsylvania taking part in a new drug overdose prevention efforts. The Pitt School of Pharmacy is developing a website  to support efforts in 7 counties, including Blair, to reduce overdoses and overdose deaths..(Central PA)

The University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy has launched a statewide overdose prevention website which is designed to help counties reduce the number of drug overdose deaths...(Pittsburgh Business Times)

Abuse of prescription drugs and heroin leads to graphic horror stories where anyone can be a victim.  In York County, the face of addiction has "drastically changed" - and the saddest part is that it happens to good people, said David Sunday, chief deputy prosecutor for the county district attorney's office...(York Daily Review)

Local legislators, state officials, law enforcers and drug and alcohol program directors all gathered Tuesday morning at Penn State Schuylkill to discuss a growing drug epidemic in Schuylkill County.  Schuylkill County's legislative delegation hosted a hearing on heroin and opioid addiction from 9:30 a.m. to noon in an effort to gather information about the latest drug concerns and prevention methods in the county...(Republican Herald)(Standard Speaker)

Officials in Schuylkill County gathered Tuesday to discuss ways to tackling a growing problem of heroin addiction.  The goal is to gather information about the newest drug concerns and prevention methods: specifically heroin and opioid addiction...(WFMZ)

A couple of Pennsylvania Senators are pushing to get the Good Samaritan Law passed, but not everyone is on board.  One of the main parts would give people immunity if they called 911 for someone who is overdosing. Some say it will save lives, while others worry that the drug dealers will fund a way to exploit it...(Central PA)

The gateway to heroin isn't necessarily on some darkened street corner or alley - for many, it's in their doctors' offices.  These people turn to the illicit drug after becoming hooked on prescription opioids like Oxycodone, according to those on the front lines of America's heroin epidemic...(York Daily Review)

New guidelines for pain treatment to be used in hospital emergency departments have been adopted by the state Department of Health and Drug and Alcohol Programs in partnership with the Pennsylvania Medical Society, officials announced recently...(Lebanon Daily News)

A local drug rehabilitation program will offer a new family-support group in response to a large number of prescription drug and overdose deaths in York County...In York County, there have been 28 heroin overdose deaths out of a total of 59 overdose deaths this year..(York Daily Review)

Over the past five years, nearly 3,000 heroin-related overdose deaths have been identified in Pennsylvania. Overdose deaths in our state have increased by an astounding 570 percent, rising from 2.7 to 15.4 per thousand over the last two decades. Nationally, more people aged 25 to 64 are dying from heroin overdoses than in vehicle crashes...(Northcentral PA)(News Item)

Camden County police began administering the lifesaving drug Narcan (generically "naloxone") in May and have saved dozens of heroin overdose victims this summer. Meanwhile, officials in Pennsylvania are hoping that state's law will change soon so police here can also save lives...(CBS Philly)

(New Mexico) I can vividly remember that day in February 2012.  A college-aged kid stormed into my office.  "A girl is overdosing in the parking lot, she needs help!"  I made two stops on my way out the door.  One to a nurse at our clinic, asking her to grab a vial of Narcan; and the other to the clerk on duty at the registration desk to call 911.  It all happened in under a minute..(Las Cruces News)

Today, the relentless, appalling loss of life associated with heroin and other dangerous drugs has become commonplace. As a police officer, I understand the instinct to mete out punishment, send a message, put somebody away for abusing drugs. Nonetheless, my experience has shown me that it is futile, counterproductive, and dangerous to try to arrest our way out of this very real problem...(Boston Globe)

(Maryland) Last year, 858 Maryland residents died due to alcohol or drug intoxication; that's enough to replace the entire University of Maryland football team more than eight times. This year is on track to be even more deadly, with a 33 percent increase in accidental opioid overdose deaths recorded in the first three months of 2014 alone. We do not want any more families, friends and communities to grieve their fallen loved ones. It is time for all of us to call this problem what is: an epidemic...(Baltimore Sun)

(New York) A heroin crisis gripping communities across the country deepened in New York last year, with more people in the city dying in overdoses from the drug than in any year since 2003...(New York Times)

(New Jersey) Just hours after receiving a supply of anti-overdose medication, police in Mansfield Township used it to save a man's life...It was the second time police in Warren County have used the medication to save an overdose victim since the Warren County Prosecutor's Office began distributing the kits earlier this month...(Express-Times)

Faced with an unrelenting epidemic of heroin and pain-pill deaths, many states are pushing to make more widely available a drug called naloxone that can reverse overdoses from such opioid drugs within minutes...(Wall Street Journal)

(Kentucky) Kentucky has the third-highest drug overdose ranking in the United States. Of the 722 drug overdose death fatalities autopsied in 2013, 31.9 percent were attributed to heroin, compared to 19.6 percent in 2012. The estimated cost of substance abuse in Kentucky is over $6 billion...(Courier-Journal)

In a study published Monday in the latest issue of JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers found that although overdose deaths from opioid painkillers have increased in the U.S. over the course of the last decade, they were 25 percent lower in states that implemented medical marijuana laws than other states..(Huffington Post)

(North Carolina) Prescription drug abuse is the fastest-growing drug problem in the United States and is a serious public health concern. In the Triad, two groups are on a community awareness campaign to help more people identify and fix the problem..(WFMY)

(Massachusetts) Police Chief Michael R. Kent announced Monday, Aug. 25, that the Burlington Police Department (BPD) successfully brought a patient out of an unresponsive state on Sunday, Aug. 24, through the administration of Narcan for the first time since the department began carrying the drug in June..(Burlington Union)

(California) On Sunday, August 31 from 10 a.m. until 12 p.m., members of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing) Los Angeles will host their annual commemoration of International Overdose Awareness Day at the Santa Monica Pier and Palisades Park. The event is free and members of the public impacted by a drug overdose are encouraged to attend...(Drug Policy Alliance)

(Illinois) One hundred and five carnation-topped crosses at Baker Lake in Peru on Saturday marked the deaths of 105 people in the United States every day from an accidental drug overdose...(News Tribune)

Desperate heroin addicts have developed strong tolerance to their drugs of choice, leading them to experiment combining other narcotics with heroin.  In their quest to get high, addicts have turned to acetyl fentanyl...(Digital Journal)

The purpose of the change is to minimize the misuse of the drugs for recreational purposes while still ensuring that patients with severe pain still have reasonable access to the amount of drug needed to control their pain and suffering...(Forbes)

The U.S. government is tightening restrictions on hydrocodone, an opioid painkiller contained in Vicodin and other addictive drugs.  The move comes as health and law enforcement officials try to curb a rising tide of prescription drug abuse. Nearly three out of four prescription drug overdoses are caused by opioid painkillers, according to federal data...(Fox News)

According to the National Centers for Disease Control (CDC) more than 80,000 people die each year in the United States from Drug and Alcohol poisoning/overdose. As many deaths due to overdose are not reported, the CDC estimates this figure could possibly be as high as 180,000...(Valley Star)

(Ireland) On average, one person a day in Ireland dies by overdose, roughly twice the number that die on the roads. Ireland is reported as having the third highest level of overdose deaths per capita in Europe...(Irish Times)