(Bucks) This event will honor Margaret Andrelczyk, an employee at PECO and the mother of an addict.  Maggie is being honored for her strength, honesty and courage in sharing her story, Heroin Kills.  All proceeds from this event will cover the cost for Narcan to law enforcement and assist with the cost for addiction services for those who are uninsured...(Steps to Recovery)

(Lebanon) A day after the announcement of Lebanon's largest drug bust in recent history, the executive director of the Lebanon County Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse delivered a sobering message to the Lebanon County commissioners on Thursday...(Lebanon Daily News)

(Allegheny) The director of the Allegheny County Health Department has issued a countywide standing order for naloxone to be given to people who are at risk of or may witness an overdose caused by heroin or other opioids such as prescription painkillers...(Times Online)

(Statewide) In Pennsylvania, it's estimated opioids like heroin killed at least 1,300 people last year. In Massachusetts, more than 1,000 have died, and in Connecticut, heroin deaths jumped more than 85 percent in two years...(NPR)

(Statewide) A week after the Pennsylvania State Coroners Association released its report on overdose deaths, Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania announced it will be funding a government program to supply naloxone to local law enforcement...(Citizens Voice)

(York) The York County Heroin Task Force will hold a meeting at the Shrewsbury Elementary School on Thursday, according to a news release...(PennLive)

(Northeast) Given the heroin epidemic that has swept across Pennsylvania in recent years, it's hard to believe that the state government doesn't maintain records on overdose deaths, especially since accurate data usually are a foundation of sound policy...(Republican Herald)

(Beaver) The tip of the iceberg. That's how Westmoreland County Coroner Kenneth Bacha describes the number of drug overdose deaths his office handles, compared with nonfatal overdoses or cases in which patients are resuscitated...(Times Online)

(Massachusetts) The Massachusetts Senate on Thursday unanimously adopted a proposal by State Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, that would require pharmacies to report opioid drug purchases to a statewide Prescription Monitoring Program within a day, rather than a week...(MassLive)

(Missouri) A House bill that would have allowed anyone to possess and administer naloxone, a drug that reverses opiate overdoses and "brings people back from the dead," was one of the victims of the Senate stalemate at the end of the 2015 Legislative session...(KBIA)

(North Carolina) A North Carolina family wrote a heartbreaking obituary after their son died of a drug overdose last Sunday.  Clay William Shephard lived in Apex, North Carolina.  His family wrote in great detail about his struggles, and issued a warning to those who are living with addiction...(CNY Central)

(California) Following the lead of Alameda County and San Francisco, Santa Barbara supervisors took a step this week toward implementing an ordinance that could put drug companies on the hook for a prescription drug take-back program...(Independent)

(Massachusetts) A third pharmacy has volunteered to carry a heroin-overdose reversal drug, weeks after Gloucester police announced they wouldn't prosecute drug addicts who ask for help...(Boston)

(New York) In the last six months, New York state has trained 10,000 laypeople to use Narcan, a drug that can save a person from death after an overdose of opioids like heroin or prescription pain killers. Local emergency medical technicians say they are behind the move, if people are properly trained...(WRVO)

(Maryland) The number of deaths due to heroin overdoses increased significantly for the third straight year in Maryland, the state announced in a report on substance abuse-related deaths on Tuesday...(Washington Post)

(National) The odds of surviving a drug overdose, much like the odds of surviving a heart attack, depend on how quickly the victim receives treatment....Because police are often the first on the scene of an overdose, the Obama Administration has strongly encouraged local law enforcement agencies to train and equip their personnel with naloxone...(Huffington Post)

(Maryland)...During the summit, the Lt. Governor and the 11 members of the task force listened to elected law enforcement and health department officials and substance abuse advocates from Frederick, Washington, Allegany and Garrett counties, as they shared their personal and professional experiences with the state's growing heroin epidemic...(Your4State)

(National) Hailed as the most compassionate way for the criminal justice system to deal with addicts, drug courts were designed to balance punishment with rehabilitation. But after 25 years, the verdict is in: Drug courts embolden judges to practice medicine without a license-and they put lives in danger...(Pacific Standard)

(National)...Because of naloxone's effectiveness in nearly instantaneously bringing overdose victims back from near-death, New York and a handful of other states are making the lifesaving drug available to virtually anyone willing to be trained to use it, hoping to better the odds it will be there when needed...(Huffington Post)

(New Jersey) A driver found unresponsive behind the wheel of his pick-up truck in traffic was revived by a Wharton police officer using Narcan, authorities said...(NJ Advance Media)

(Washington) More than 500 people die of opioid overdoses in Washington state each year. This death toll has skyrocketed over the past decade as opioid addiction rates have risen, fueled by expanded access to prescription opioids and more potent, inexpensive heroin...(Seattle Times)

(West Virginia) As people in the Huntington area wrestle with ways to curb the drug epidemic that has killed so many over the last decade, a stark reminder about the problem's pervasiveness and widespread effects resurfaced recently. It had to do with the impact on newborns exposed to harmful substances while in their mothers' wombs and the lasting consequences that exposure can have on their lives...(Herald-Dispatch)

(West Virginia) Over five years, out-of-state drug wholesalers shipped more than 200 million doses of two popular prescription painkillers to West Virginia, while turning a blind eye to suspicious orders from "pill-mill" pharmacies, according to the latest filing in a state lawsuit against the companies...(WV Gazette)

(National) Researchers at the Desert Pacific Veteran Integrated Service Network of Veterans Affairs have developed an IT dashboard to monitor and manage the number of Veterans treated with high-dose opioids in an effort to reduce their dose and risk for accidental or intentional overdose...(Healio)

(Kentucky)...The Kentucky Board of Pharmacy approved an emergency regulation that went into effect Thursday that gives pharmacists the option to dispense the drug without a doctor's prescription. The state is among the first in the nation to do so...(Cincinnati)

(Massachusetts) The budget proposed by the Massachusetts Senate Ways and Means Committee includes a new program that would allow the state to bulk purchase the anti-overdose drug Narcan, then sell it to cities and towns...(MassLive)

(Canada)...The province is spending $300,000 to get naloxone to agencies across the province that run drug abuse programs. "It will be earth shattering," Vanderschaeghe said. "We'll be able to save lives."...(CBC News)