A new study finds that drug overdose deaths in Pennsylvania are significantly higher than the national average. Data from the Centers for Disease Control lists the Keystone State among 14 states in this category...(Central PA)

About 40 people gathered at the Elderton Towne Hall on Wednesday to learn how to administer an antidote that reverses the effects of an opiate overdose.  Though not the first of its kind, the program was the first offered by Prevention Point Pittsburgh since enactment of a state law Saturday that allows doctors to prescribe the drug Naloxone to third parties -- particularly family and friends of those addicted to heroin or other opiates....(TribLive)

Alarmed by the growing toll of drug overdose deaths, officials in Westmoreland County are looking south, to a North Carolina county known for moonshine and as the birthplace of NASCAR, for a solution to the problem...(TribLive)

In response to the public outcry for help with the opiate epidemic, the General Assembly passed Act 139 -effective November 29 -, which  included a Good Samaritan provision that provides immunity from arrest for reporting an overdose, as well as allowing for greatly-increased access to the overdose antidote medication, naloxone, also known as Narcan...(Kittanning Paper)

It's good news that emergency personnel across the state can now carry a medication that will save lives of opiate overdose victims if used quickly enough after an overdose occurs.  Not so good is the fact that the drug - Naloxone - isn't being made available to all emergency responders in Franklin County...(Public Opinion)

Recent efforts by the Wayne County Heroin Task Force have substantially enhanced awareness of the heroin addiction issue in our county.  Now let's consider this -- even if we take all of the suppliers out of the picture today, more will show up tomorrow, because the demand is ever present...(News Eagle)

Remember that scene in Pulp Fiction where Uma Thurman overdosed on John Travolta's heroin, and he had to figure out how to save her life - and his own, since she was the wife of a crime boss - while not getting busted himself for illegal drugs?...Here's the good news: Today, Travolta could just take Thurman to the hospital - in Pennsylvania, at least...(Philly Mag)

A new state law allows first responders, family and friends to administer an antidote for drug overdoses. It also gives people who call for help legal protection from drug possession charges...(Fox43)

Pennsylvania's Act 139 goes into effect on 29th of November, which will allow first responders, family members and friends to administer an antidote for drug overdoses.  The law also gives Good Samaritan protections against possible liability...(American Live Wire)

Anyone hesitant to take someone overdosing on heroin to the hospital or cooperate with the police for fear of arrest will now be immune to prosecution on drug use or possession charges...(PennLive)

The Clearfield-Jefferson Heroin Task Force, Inc. and the City of DuBois have erected a message board on the DuBois City Park Walkway, near Shower's Field...(Courier Express)

Lynne Massi was smiling. So was Tricia Stouch. It's something that comes easily for both women, despite being scarred by the heroin scourge that is taking a horrific toll on Delaware County and the region...(DelcoTimes)

Heroin has killed 21 people this year in Erie County.  Synthetic opioids, meanwhile, have played a role in many of the other 29 overdose deaths recorded in 2014, Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook said...(Go Erie)

Under a new Pennsylvania law that takes effect today, doctors and emergency personnel can begin to reduce the death toll from the state's prescription opioid and heroin epidemic...(Times-Tribune)(Citizens Voice)

The administration of Governor Tom Corbett said a prescription drug that is capable of reducing fatalities from overdoses of heroin is going to be more available to the public and police in Pennsylvania..(Capital OTC)

Gov. Tom Corbett's administration says a prescription drug that can reduce fatalities from heroin overdoses is about to become more widely available in Pennsylvania to police and the public...(StarGazette)(DelawareOnline)

On 29th November, Pennsylvania's Act 139 goes into effect, which will allow first responders, friends and family members to administer an antidote for drug overdoses. The law also gives Good Samaritan protections against possible liability...(Voice Chronicle)

Beginning Saturday, police and community members will have greater access to Naloxone in Pennsylvania.  If administered soon enough, the drug can immediately reverse the effects of a life-threatening overdose of heroin or another opioid such as OxyContin...(Newsworks)

Erich Curnow believes a new piece of legislation will truly be life-saving. Act 139, which enables first responders to administer naloxone to people experiencing an opioid overdose, goes into effect today...(Observer-Reporter)

(New York)...Ms. Sperring's fall from life as a suburban mom and a wife played out with dizzying speed. By the end, her modest condominium was a locus for a borough's ravenous heroin demand. Dealers set up there; Staten Island's bands of addicts, linked by word of mouth and cellphone connections, descended en masse; the police followed...(The New York Times)

(Minnesota) Coon Rapids firefighters say a 24-year old man is alive thanks to a heroin overdose antidote they began using three months ago. It's the first "save" since they began using Narcan...(KARE11)

(New Jersey) The New Jersey State Police has put all law-enforcement agencies on notice that a new dangerous pill form of heroin has emerged in Camden, Burlington, and Gloucester counties with the potential to spread throughout all of the Garden State...(North Jersey)

(Arizona)...Arizona was sixth highest for drug overdose deaths in 2010. The shocking numbers are the reason for the guidelines, described as "a voluntary, consensus set of guidelines that promote best practices for prescribing opioids for acute and chronic pain."...(AZ Central)

(Connecticut) More and more emergency responders throughout the state now are equipped to potentially save the lives of those caught in the grip of a national epidemic...(CT Post)

(Wisconsin)...This week Safe Communities Madison Dane County launched a campaign it's calling Don't Run, Call 911. It's meant to promote the new state law providing immunity from drug possession charges to a person who makes a good faith effort to seek medical assistance for someone experiencing an overdose...(Channel3000)

(Oklahoma) With Stephens County's rate of prescription drug overdose deaths exceeding the state average, the Wichita Mountains Prevention Network is working with local pharmacies to encourage those with prescriptions for painkillers to get a lock box for their medicine...(Duncan Banner)

The epidemic of opioid overdoses is continuing to take its deadly toll on Americans: The rate of deaths involving prescription painkillers like Oxycontin and Vicodin more than tripled between 1999 and 2012, according to a new CDC report. The heroin-related death rate is also on the rise, increasing nearly threefold in the same time period...(Yahoo Health)

Preventing prescription drug abuse is about more than simply controlling distribution of these medications. That became clear during a panel discussion held during the Nov. 14-15 AAFP State Legislative Conference here, when speakers addressed specific aspects of the abuse problem that affect their respective states. The consensus: The best ways to battle this problem involve cooperation among physicians, pharmacists and law enforcement officers...(AAFP)

Fewer Americans died from prescription painkiller overdoses in 2012 than the year before, the first such decline in more than a decade, according to fresh data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the same time, deaths from heroin nearly doubled from 2010 to 2012...(Business Week)

Drug overdose deaths in the United States more than doubled over the past decade, U.S. health officials announced in a report released Tuesday, though deaths in Texas were significantly lower compared to much of the rest of the country...(NBCDFW)

(California) A popular form of a drug that has been freely handed out in San Francisco for more than a decade to reverse heroin overdoses has doubled in price, raising concerns that the sudden spike will limit the use of what has become an effective tool against drug deaths nationwide...(SF Gate)

The epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse continues to take a deadly toll in the United States, with fatal overdoses involving drugs such as Oxycontin and Vicodin tripling over a decade, a new report shows...(WSFA)(Philly)

...Those arguing against Narcan as a harm-reduction tool would claim that drug users are aware of the risks, including the possibility of death or disease, which still doesn't compel them to quit. This line of thought is situated in a profound misunderstanding of the phenomenology of addiction...(VICE)

The number of yearly deaths from drug overdoses in the United States more than doubled between 1999 and 2012, according to a new report...(Live Science)(Fox News)

(Illinois) DuPage County's campaign to save the lives of overdosing heroin users got a financial boost during the Nov. 25 County Board meeting, when Chairman Dan Cronin accepted a $70,000 donation from the group "Friends of Ed Heil."..(Suburban Life)

A study just released by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health compared the use of prescription opioids and stimulants among high school graduates, non-graduates, and their college-attending peers, and found that young adults who do not attend college are at particularly high risk for nonmedical prescription opioid use and disorder...(Science Daily)

..."The prescription opioid user population is different from the heroin user population," explains Dr. Coffin. "People who take prescribed medications often think that overdose only happens when people use illegal drugs or take 100 pain pills. They don't see themselves as at risk for drug overdose, even if they clearly are."...(Huffington Post)

...But police and public health officials from New York to San Francisco are facing sticker shock: Prices for a popular form of the medication, naloxone, are spiking, in some cases by 50 percent or more...(New York Times)

(Wyoming) Sometimes the biggest problems are standing right there in front you.Take the case of Colleen Marie Willow, the woman accused of forging enough prescriptions to get 1,000 illegal pills in Fremont County this year...(The Ranger)