(Beaver) An estimated 221 overdoses have occurred in Beaver County since January -- 27 of which were fatal, according to the district attorney's office...(Times Online)

(Luzerne)...The House Majority Policy Committee, led by chairman Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte, heard the testimony and posed questions to help legislators draft policy that might combat the issue. Rep. Aaron Kaufer, R-Kingston, opened the discussion...(Citizens Voice)

(Statewide) In Pennsylvania, the office that screens mail for officials in Harrisburg gets more money than the whole operating budget for the agency fighting the heroin crisis...(Public Source)

(Statewide) Gov. Tom Wolf's $34 million budget request to address Pennsylvania's opioid abuse crisis is "a start" as the state begins to understand the scope and need of a statewide epidemic, he told reporters Thursday...(Citizens Voice)

(Lancaster)...Between 2006 and 2010, only 13 percent of felony drug arrests by the Task Force involved heroin.  This year more than two-thirds of all felony drug arrests are because of heroin, according to the district attorney's office...(Lancaster Online)

(Dauphin) Dauphin County is shaking up its drug and alcohol treatment system by creating a new mobile case management unit that will respond directly to overdoses 24-hours a day...(PennLive)

(Luzerne) There has been an increase in drug overdoses, but it's not only a Hazleton problem, nor a Paterson, New Jersey, problem, said Jerry Speziale, who heads the police departments in both cities. It's a national issue, he said, and a product of the country-wide opioid addiction epidemic...(Standard Speaker)

(Luzerne) A new report from the Luzerne County Coroner's office shows a record number of Luzerne County residents died from drug overdoses last year, prompting stepped-up warnings from county officials to drug users and those who care about them...(Times Leader)

(Montgomery)...Beginning today, the county Health Department will partner with the county Office of Drug and Alcohol Programs to offer free naloxone nasal-spray kits at three county health centers...(Reading Eagle)

(Westmoreland)...The help line operates from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week. Call takers dispense information about treatment programs, give out referrals and offer a friendly voice to help addicts, their families and friends deal with drug and alcohol problems...(TribLive)

(Crawford) A new, voluntary treatment program to help county jail inmates overcome addiction to opioid medications or alcohol has been approved by the Crawford County Prison Board...(Meadville Tribune)

(National) Chinese-made fentanyl is playing such an increasingly tragic role in overdose deaths nationally and in Pennsylvania that U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey recently demanded that the federal government crackdown on its importation and that China offer more cooperation...(Times Online)

(Delaware) In an effort to combat heroin and opioid related deaths in Delaware, the Division of Public Health is teaming up with the Department of Justice to provide more than 430 naloxone kits to law enforcement agencies, when it comes to emergency situations...(WMDT)

(National)...In 2012, the height of overprescribing, health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for opioids. Now, recent data from IMS Health show a 12% decrease in the number of opioid prescriptions written since 2012, while Symphony Health Solutions, a separate health data company, recorded an 18% decrease in that time period...(Pharmacy Times)

(Vermont)...The state's health department says they gave out 5,830 doses in 2015, nearly double what it dispensed the year before with 2,893 in 2014. The amount of reported uses of naloxone also went up from 122 to 400. But health department officials say that number is low because people often don't report uses..(WCAX)

(National) A new federally funded program is partnering with police departments and health departments in 17 states in the northeast and beyond to share information quickly to respond to the heroin crisis...(Drug Free)

(Connecticut)...But not all death certificates have as much information as they could. When Gill took the job just a few years ago, only 63 percent of Connecticut's drug deaths had specific drugs listed on the death certificate. Today 99 percent do...(NPR)

(National) Congressional leaders from North Dakota and Minnesota are backing bills that would help stem the tide of a nationwide epidemic of opiate and heroin abuse and overdose that has claimed thousands of lives in the U.S. and has reared its head locally...(Jamestown Sun)

(National)...We are losing sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, leaders in the community, role models for our young people, and people of all demographics and backgrounds. We are losing them in every town across America and at an even alarmingly higher rate in our region. We are losing them to the devastating opioid epidemic...(Observer-Reporter)

(New York)...The state Senate and Assembly agreed on legislation this week that will require the state's Department of Health to keep a record of how many people survive an overdose to get a more complete picture of the state's drug epidemic...(WXXI)

(National) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a drug-emitting implant to combat addiction to heroin and other opioids killing thousands of people annually...(CNN)

(Connecticut) Gov. Dannel Malloy signed a comprehensive bill into law in an effort help combat the opioid addiction epidemic. The bill will limit initial prescriptions of opioids and ensure municipalities are prepared to deal with overdoses...(Patch)

(Ohio) Cuyahoga County is on pace to record the highest number of overdose deaths due to heroin and fentanyl in a single year in its history, as officials continue to grapple with the drugs' deadly rise...(Cleveland)