OVERDOSE NEWS BULLETIN
News from across the Commonwealth and the Nation
May 15, 2015 to May 22, 2015 .
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Event
-June 5, 2015 -Levittown, PA |
Stomp the Stigma Fundraiser
(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)
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05-21-2015
-Heroin Abuse -Statistics -Treatment |
Heroin tops list of Lebanon County's drug-rehab cases
(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)
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05-21-2015
-Naloxone -Access -Public |
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05-21-2015
-Overdose -Statistics -Concerns |
States Lack Accurate Statistics On Widespread Heroin Use
(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)
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05-19-2015
-Naloxone -Access -Funding |
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05-18-2015
-Task Force Meeting -May 21 |
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05-17-2015
-Overdose -Statistics -Op-Ed |
Coroners step up on overdoses
(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)
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05-17-2015
-Overdose -Statistics |
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05-22-2015
-Prescription -Monitoring -Legislation -MA SB 1045 |
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05-21-2015
-Naloxone -Legislation -MO HB 538 |
Overdose Antidote Bill Falls Short Due to Senate Stalemate
(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)
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05-21-2015
-Overdose -Awareness -Personal Story -Legacy |
Gut-wrenching obituary for young overdose victim goes viral
(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)
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05-20-2015
-Prescription Drug -Take Back -Funding |
County Looks to Big Pharma to Fund Drug Take Back
(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)
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05-20-2015
-Naloxone -Access -Pharmacy |
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05-19-2015
-Naloxone -Access -Public |
New York state trains laypeople in life-saving overdose drug
(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)
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05-19-2015
-Overdose -Statistics |
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05-19-2015
-Naloxone -Overview -Law Enforcement |
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05-18-2015
-Opioid Abuse -Task Force -Public Forum |
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05-18-2015
-Drug Court -Overview -Concerns |
How America Overdosed on Drug Courts
(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)
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05-18-2015
-Naloxone -Overview -Access |
How States Are Putting The Overdose Antidote Into The Hands Of Ordinary People
(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)
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05-17-2015
-Naloxone -Rescue -Law Enforcement |
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05-17-2015
-Naloxone -Overview -Op-Ed |
A lifesaving drug for opioid addicts, but it's not easy to get
(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)
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05-16-2015
-NAS -Overview -Op-Ed |
Editorial: Babies' plight illustrates urgency of drug crisis
(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)
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05-16-2015
-Prescription Abuse -Overview -Statistics |
Drug firms shipped 40M pain pills a year to WV
(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)
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05-16-2015
-Prescription -Monitoring -Veterans |
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05-15-2015
-Naloxone -Access |
KY makes OD reversal drug available without prescription
(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)
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05-21-2015
-Naloxone -Access -Initiative |
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Bulletin Archives
Contact Us: Tom Stark, Management Associate, PACDAA
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