The Center for Rural Pennsylvania will release its report on the heroin crisis facing Pennsylvania at a press conference on Tuesday, September 23, 2014 in Harrisburg.  The report reflects the issues addressed, and the recommendations made, by more than 50 presenters at four statewide hearings held during the summer months and totaling over 15 hours of testimony...(Sen. Yaw Newsroom)

A Good Samaritan helping an overdose victim - even one using illegal drugs - could be safe from prosecution under a bill seeking to cut the number of fatal overdoses from heroin and other opioids.  The measure also allows emergency responders to carry and use Naloxone, a life-saving drug that reverses the effects of opiate overdose. Pennsylvania was one of just two states disallowing use of the drug...(Morning Call)

Charlene Sciarretta buried her 26-year-old son, Danny, 10 years ago from a heroin overdose.  Danny had struggled for years to overcome his addiction, his mother said, but a final needle injection of the opioid took him for good and tore their Shrewsbury-area family "to tiny pieces."...(York Dispatch)

 The Montgomery County commissioners have formed a new task force designed to combat the rising scourge of drug overdoses in local communities.  The impetus for the task force came several months ago when Abington Police Chief...William Kelly approached Commissioners' Chairman Josh Shapiro at a public event and enlisted his help in devising a strategy for stemming the tide of the dramatic increase in narcotics overdoses in the county...(The Mercury)

(New York) As Staten Island and other New York municipalities continue to battle a drug overdose epidemic, some believe the answer can be found in local communities.  "New York is huge, we've got very diverse communities and neighborhoods in this city," VOCAL New York policy director Matt Curtis said. "We need to have local solutions to this."...(SI Live)