(Lackawanna) Lackawanna County is launching a task force to educate the public about the dangers of abusing drugs like heroin and other opioids that law enforcement and others call an epidemic...(Times Tribune)

(Statewide) Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health hope that their first-of-its-kind study of the rates of overdose deaths in Pennsylvania over 35 years will assist health and law enforcement officials in delivering potential lifesaving intervention to those most vulnerable...(Post-Gazette)

(Northcentral) This month's 'Conversation with Senator Gene Yaw' highlights Project Bald Eagle, a Lycoming County-based non-profit organization that is leading efforts to stem the tide of the heroin epidemic through Education, Prevention, Treatment, Enforcement and Data Monitoring...(Daily Review)

(Statewide) A new state-run prescription drug monitoring program created to help curb the opioid abuse epidemic should be operating by August, Health Secretary Karen Murphy, Ph.D., told lawmakers Tuesday...(Citizens Voice)

(Delaware) With nearly 200 drug overdoses and 20 heroin-related deaths recorded in Upper Darby last year, township authorities are offering the police department as a "safe haven" to township drug users who voluntarily request help to find treatment...(Delco Times)

(Statewide) As heroin and opioids continue to overwhelm the nation, the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy is creating an online clearinghouse of statistics and bolstering community initiatives to battle overdose deaths in Pennsylvania...(TribLive)

(Statewide)...They would be wise to note the comments of both Lynne Massi and Upper Darby Police Superintendent Mike Chitwood. They both suggest that while use of Narcan is saving lives, what happens next is not getting enough attention...(The Mercury)

(Bucks) The Bucks County organization Drug Addiction oVerdose Education has trained about 240 family members of addicts to administer naloxone, also called Narcan, in the case of an opioid overdose...(Newsworks)

(Statewide)...In 2014, about 2,500 individuals - seven people a day - succumbed in the commonwealth to fatal overdoses from prescription opioids and heroin, a staggering 20 percent increase over the previous year...(Times Leader)

(Schuylkill) The Pottsville Bureau of Police was among 300 departments and state police that were recognized March 1 for reversing more than 600 opioid overdoses in Pennsylvania...(Republican Herald)

(Luzerne) When Carol Coolbaugh learned the state physician general had signed a standing order last October making naloxone available to all Pennsylvania residents, she was relieved...(Times Leader)

(Statewide) The Wolf administration reported Thursday that police across Pennsylvania reversed more than 600 opioid drug overdoses...Yet the state remains well behind others in implementing a system that could prevent even more opioid overdoses...(Times Tribune)

(Berks) Pennsylvania Physician General Dr. Rachel Levine today visited Esterbrook Pharmacy to remind the public and medical professionals about the availability and effectiveness of the opioid antidote naloxone. Esterbrook Pharmacy is stocked with naloxone and already dispensed it to customers...(PR Newswire)

(Montgomery) An Upper Dublin High School senior earned accolades from Montgomery County commissioners Thursday for her winning entry in a competition to design billboards to raise overdose awareness...(The Mercury)

(Westmoreland) Though dozens of people died from heroin overdoses last year in Westmoreland County, officials said prescription medications and other drugs are a growing concern...(TribLive)

(New Jersey)...The Rx Mission Drive-in/Drop-Off is a medicine-collection program sponsored by the Somerset County Sheriff's Office, the Somerset County Solid Waste Management Division and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (USDEA). The program is held in conjunction with all scheduled Somerset County Household Hazardous Waste drop-off events. This is a rain or shine event...(Messenger-Gazette)

(Massachusetts) Inmates who leave the Hampshire County House of Correction in the next 30 to 60 days will be able to take with them two doses of Narcan, a drug that can reverse the effects of an overdose caused by heroin and other opioids...(MassLive)

(Maryland) Are folks around Harford County getting serious about the heroin abuse epidemic that has claimed many of our sons and daughters in recent years? We believe they are...(Baltimore Sun)

(Washington) The death of Penny LeGate's daughter from a heroin overdose in 2012 was once impossible for the former KIRO-TV anchor to discuss. Now her story makes a powerful point, in a PBS documentary and on the floor of the U.S. Senate...(Seattle Times)

(National) The Senate is poised to pass a bipartisan bill this week that would provide federal grants to states and local governments to combat the national epidemic of heroin addiction and prescription painkiller abuse...(USA Today)

(Maine) 272 people died in the state in 2015 due to a drug overdose, according to the Office of Maine Attorney General Janet Mills spokesman Tim Feeley. That's a 31% increase over 2014 which saw a record 208 overdose deaths...(WLBZ)

(National)...The visibility of drug users may be partly attributed to the nature of the epidemic, which has grown largely out of dependence on legal opioid painkillers and has spread to white, urban, suburban and rural areas...(New York Times)

(Rhode Island) As the death toll from drug overdoses continues to climb, Governor Raimondo and a statewide task force she appointed seven months ago have been working to set in motion the state's first comprehensive plan for curbing the opioid epidemic...(Providence Journal)

(Maryland) Physician Leana Wen has trained heroin addicts, first responders and drug court officials in how to administer the antidote for an opioid overdose. So why not a group of wealthy white women gathered at a stately clubhouse in Baltimore's toniest neighborhood?..(USA Today)

(New Mexico) Bills to make overdose reversal drugs more widely available and to curb overprescription of opioid drugs were signed into law Friday by Gov. Susana Martinez...(Abq Journal)