PublicSource | News for a better Pittsburgh (https://www.publicsource.org/tag/drug-abuse-and-rehabilitation/)
An Allegheny County judge has begun fining drug dealers to buy the opioid overdose antidote, naloxone, for agencies working in the communities where they’ve sold drugs.
Heroin crisis The federal government has grim news on overdose deaths in Pennsylvania.
Already in the midst of a drug crisis that kills more people statewide than car crashes, overdose deaths spiked nearly 25 percent last year, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Philadelphia Field Division.
Heroin crisis There might be good news for those who care about drug treatment money.
As part of Pennsylvania’s fight against the ongoing opioid crisis, the state just implemented a new drug monitoring program to track the prescription drug purchase history of individuals.
Heroin crisis After a statewide tour and a trip to the White House, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is turning to social media to address the state’s growing opioid crisis.
Heroin crisis People are overdosing on a common drug used to treat diarrhea, and it’s another potentially deadly side effect of the opioid epidemic gripping the nation.
Health The risk of HIV and hepatitis C outbreaks among drug users burst into the national spotlight last year after an HIV outbreak in a small Indiana town. Over the course of a year, 30 HIV cases ballooned to more than 190 infections attributed to intravenous drug use.
A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention preliminary report has determined that 220 counties in the United States are at risk for similar outbreaks.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday declined to take a case that might decide if the death penalty is constitutional.
One out of every 11 organ donors is a person who has died from a drug overdose.
This statistic is according to new government data reported by The Washington Post.
The trend is a combination of rising drug-related deaths and efforts by advocates to spread the message of organ donation to more communities, even marginalized ones, according to the article.
Beginning in July, the Pennsylvania Department of Health will collect data about all babies born addicted to opioids.
The longstanding problem is that data are scarce about the number of babies born dependent on drugs, according to a joint WITF/ NPR story. Pennsylvania Department of Human Services [DHS] Secretary Ted Dallas said the department has relied on “reasonably good” estimates.
About 3,700 babies on Medicaid were born with neonatal abstinence syndrome between 2013 and 2014 in the state, according to WITF.
