..."Narcan is used for a moment. And addiction is a chronic disease, it's a progressive fatal disease. So Narcan has an enormous role keeping someone in life and not in death, but after that moment, the person is still addicted,"...(WITF)

(Lancaster) In a direct response to the heroin epidemic in central Pennsylvania, Capital BlueCross is buying the drug naloxone for police departments in Lancaster County and in 20 other counties across the state..(Lancaster Online)

Capital Blue Cross said Thursday it will help provide naloxone to police departments throughout the midstate. The effort will also involve the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association...(PennLive)

(Wayne) Heroin crosses all boundaries regardless of age, sex or social standing, but citizens and officials are coming together to fight the increasing problem..(Wayne Independent)

(Cumberland) As a person who suffers from chronic pain which requires relief from opioid medications because other non-opioid medications simply do not do the job, I worry what might be next if our government continually attempts to keep these medications out of the wrong hands, perhaps even banning these medications altogether...(PennLive)

The statewide surge in heroin abuse is terrifying and shows no signs of stopping, while at the same time a growing number of municipalities are finding it harder to fund an adequate level of police coverage...(Morning Call)

(York) At least 45 people have died from heroin use in York County this year, and a new allows police and other first-responders to administer a drug that can reverse overdoses. But no police departments in the county are currently carrying the antidote...(WITF)

(Northampton) Artwork created by a fifth grader at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Bethlehem Township, Pennsylvania will be featured in a 2015 calendar being produced by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office...(PennLive)

(Centre) The parents of a woman who died of a heroin overdose earlier this year are seeking leniency for a man convicted of having supplied the drugs..(Lancaster Online)

...Still, as costly as the aforementioned is in terms of lost lives, the yearly averages of U.S. fatalities of 408 and 181 in Iraq and Afghanistan pale in comparison with the number of lives lost annually in the U.S. from overdoses of pain pills...(TribLive)

(Cumberland) Cumberland County on Friday announced the launch of a new Community Opiate Overdose Prevention Coalition that aims to combat the current epidemic of heroin and prescription drug abuse...(Cumberlink)

(Cumberland) Several groups in Cumberland County are pushing to stop heroin and prescription drug abuse...Cumberland County Coroner Charlie Hall said there have been 11 heroin deaths so far this year. That's a big difference from 2012 when there were only two...(WGAL)

(Cumberland) Cumberland County is the latest midstate community to launch a large-scale effort against painkiller and heroin addiction, which has emerged as a crisis locally and all over Pennsylvania...(PennLive)

Although Pennsylvania's treatment system is criticized by former heroin addicts and drug prevention advocates, there is hope for improvements in the short term...(PennLive)

The documentary "WRITTEN OFF: The Short, Sad, Beautiful Life of Matt Edwards," currently in production, will challenge the stigma of addiction. The story of Matt Edwards, a Wisconsin opiate addict who chronicled his life in highly personal journals, is a rare journey inside the opiate crisis...(Digital Journal)

(Virginia) Jack and Kathy Briggs of Fairfax had been saving for years to be able to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary last September in Italy, but they never went. Instead they spent the money to pay for their 21-year-old son's funeral after discovering him dead from a suspected heroin overdose the day before they were scheduled to go...(Fairfax Times)

(Maryland) It is so frustrating to read about policymakers and their obsession with identifying the "numbers of heroin users." While they're busy counting, addicts are dying while on waiting lists for treatment...(Baltimore Sun)

(Maine) Descoteaux said she is sharing the gut wrenching story of losing her son to a heroin overdose in hopes that it may prevent another family from experiencing the same tragedy...(Bangor Daily News)

(Washington) There's an antidote that can help reverse overdoses of powerful opiate drugs, but it hasn't been available for purchase by the general public. Now four area pharmacies are offering kits with the medication...(Herald Net)

(Indiana) Porter County police said their first use of a medication designed to reverse the effects of a drug overdose helped save a life...The woman survived the ordeal and an emergency room doctor credited the officer's efforts with helping to save her life...(NWI Times)

(Massachusetts) Heroin and other opiate overdoses are spiking across Massachusetts, with an alarming 58 suspected deaths so far this month, the same number reported for all of November, 16 of them in one weekend, State Police said...(Boston Globe)

(New Jersey) The Overdose Prevention Agency Corporation, a newly formed nonprofit founded by Hamilton resident Paul Ressler, held its first training session Tuesday to educate family and friends of opiate drug users on how to administer Naloxone to anyone suffering from an overdose...(Times of Trenton)

(Minnesota) Even though it is famous for the "Minnesota Model" of treating addictions through abstinence and support, Minnesota has been slow, some doctors say, to embrace a drug that can help people hooked on heroin...(Star Tribune)

How much should the same industry that unleashes a devastating public health crisis be allowed to profit from any potential solution to that crisis?..You may want to know about one of the biggest ironies and injustices currently playing out on the sad and complicated battlefield our national opiate epidemic has become...(Huffington Post)

(Missouri) A proposed Missouri bill would give legal amnesty to those seeking emergency medical help for drug overdoses...(KMOV)

(Oregon) County health officials testified to a legislative committee last week that allowing lay people access to a drug that reverses opiate overdose has already saved lives in its first year of implementation. But the law is missing a major protection: a Good Samaritan provision...(Statesman Journal)

(Rhode Island) According to the most recent Department of Health numbers, there have been 212 apparent accidental drug overdose deaths in 2014, in 31 cities and towns...(WPRO)

(West Virginia) When the regular session of the state legislature begins in January, a national group will be in West Virginia asking lawmakers to look at bills which take a different look at the problem of drug addiction...(Metro News)

(West Virginia) Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Vogrin said federal statistics show that West Virginia leads the nation in the number of overdose deaths per capita, a problem that he and others are working to bring under control...(Wheeling News-Register)

With Pennsylvania pharmacies now authorized to fill third-party naloxone prescriptions and California pharmacies set to dispense naloxone without any prescription at all, more and more pharmacists are providing a critical public pathway to the opioid overdose antidote...(Pharmacy Times)

(Connecticut) State Troopers administered a dose of Emergency Intranasal Naloxone, also known as Narcan, to an unresponsive 35-year-old woman found sitting in a car near 29 Geer Road Friday, according State Police...(The Day)

(Kentucky) No Kentucky lawmaker opposes better methods to combat a rising tide of heroin addiction, but the specifics of how to do it - and politics - get complicated...(Glasgow Daily Times)

(Idaho) After a string of pharmacy robberies, Magic Valley druggists were on edge. Those legitimately taking prescription opioid pain killers, the robbers' drug of choice, now face extra scrutiny...(Greenwich Time)

The epidemic of prescription drug abuse in the United States has become rampant and deadly. Unfortunately, those who have served our nation are disproportionately prone to abusing powerful narcotics that have been prescribed for combat injuries...(Sacramento Bee)

(Vermont) In November of this year, there were seven reported deaths from heroin overdoses in the Upper Valley. All of them had used heroin laced with a drug called Fentanyl, an opioid sometimes mixed with heroin to make the latter more potent. Dr. Ben Nordstrom, director of addiction services at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, has had extensive experience with the drug...(VPR)

Close to 60% of patients who are taking opioids for pain medication are also taking additional drugs that present serious patient safety risks when taken in combination, finds a new pain management trend report from Express Scripts...(Health IT Analytics)

(Massachusetts) Chances are it's happened in your town, a heroin overdose, maybe even a death. Some call it an epidemic that doesn't respect age, income or where you live. To find out more, we went to a support group called "Learn To Cope" where family members of addicts look for help, and gain strength. ..(CBS Local)

(Minnesota) Swift action by two Coon Rapids firefighters saved the life of a 23-year-old man who had overdosed on heroin the evening of Nov. 28.  Thanks to a new state law that went into effect July 1, the Coon Rapids Fire Department has since Sept. 4 carried the antidote to opiate overdoses, including heroin, in its rescue vehicles when it responds to medical calls in the city...(ABC Newspapers)

(New York) The Washington County Sheriff's Office says they were able to save a man suffering from a heroin overdose thanks to Narcan...(News 10)

A newly published study of opioid use in the U.S. finds patients prescribed potentially addictive painkillers are taking more of them for longer - usually in the form of dangerous cocktail combinations. The increase is so stark that the number of prescriptions has risen, even as the total number of Americans filling these prescriptions has declined...(io9)

(Canada) The 10-week program geared for eight-to-11-year-olds will be offered up at schools across Sarnia-Lambton. Rebound will also be offering the program in-house - as well as one-on-one support with their new addictions counselor Brooke Gerber - for children in need of support...(The Observer)

(Ireland) The Minster for Health, Leo Varadkar has pledged to step up efforts to bring about a reduction in the number of drug related deaths...(Clare Champion)

(Indonesia) After 15 years of being addicted to drugs, David Gordon was ready to turn his life around, but he soon realized there were others that were still being controlled by addiction. Having been through the cycle of jail and drugs, starting with marijuana and ending up with heroin, he decided to start his own rehabilitation center in Bogor, a city just south of Indonesia's capital Jakarta...(WSEE)

(Canada) A number of local deaths are suspected to be linked to the illegal consumption of the drug fentanyl, according to a public safety alert issued by Grande Prairie RCMP and Alberta Health Services...(Daily Herald Tribune)