Articles/Stories

FOX 29 | BY TIMES LEADER STAFF | 09.28.16

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WTXF/AP) – Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf told lawmakers Wednesday that now is the time to take a stand against opioid addiction, and he outlined his legislative priorities in the waning days of the fall legislative session.

THE TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT | BY JOHN FINNERTY | 09.28.2016

HARRISBURG – Gov. Tom Wolf used a rare speech to a joint session of the Legislature to call for a unified effort in confronting a drug crisis that kills 10 Pennsylvanians every day.

TRIB LIVE | BY KARI ANDREN | 09.28.16

Pennsylvania lawmakers must act swiftly to address the epidemic of overdose deaths from prescription painkillers, Gov. Tom Wolf said Wednesday during a rare joint session of the General Assembly.

THE TIMES ONLINE | BY J.D. PROSE | 09.28.2016

Bipartisanship is a rare commodity in Harrisburg these days, but the fight to curb the opioid epidemic ravaging Pennsylvania brought Democrats and Republicans together Wednesday as Gov. Tom Wolf addressed a legislative joint session to call for immediate action.

WE ARE CENTRAL PA | BY CAROLYN DONALDSON | 09.20.2016

State leaders joined drug treatment advocates in Harrisburg Tuesday for a ‘Day of Hope’ rally.

TIMES LEADER | BY TIMES LEADER STAFF | 09.20.16

HARRISBURG — State Rep. Aaron Kaufer joined hundreds of Pennsylvanians, several House and Senate colleagues, as well as Gov. Tom Wolf and members of his administration and others at the PA HOPE (Heroin, Opioid, Prevention and Education) Caucus’s “Day of Hope” rally Tuesday at the state Capitol.

PENNLIVE | BY DAVID WENNER | 09.19.16

Drug makers and organizations they help fund spent more than $880 million during the past decade on issues including proposed laws related to opioids, which have killed 165,000 people since 2000 and caused untold others to become addicted to heroin, according to an investigation done by the Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity.

THE TIMES-TRIBUNE | BY PETER CAMERON | 09.13.2016

The opioid epidemic continues to expand its tendrils across society, as deaths from drugged driving in Pennsylvania now exceed those from drunken driving, Lackawanna County President Judge Michael Barrasse told The Times-Tribune editorial board Monday.

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE | BY J. Brady McCollough | 08.14.16

Jessica Neal walks through the doors of her old high school gym wearing a black “Fight Against Heroin” T-shirt. She tries to calm her nerves. Eight years is a long time to be away.

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE | BY RICH LORD AND MAIA SILBER | 08.12.16

Thousands of medical professionals have quietly signed away their rights to prescribe narcotics — and, in many cases, their careers — in recent years in a little-discussed part of the federal crackdown on prescribing that has some doctors’ advocates crying foul.

THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS | BY CHRISTINE VESTAL | 07.23.16

PORTLAND, Maine — When Clifton Hilton decided to quit drinking this month, he called a residential drug and alcohol detoxification center in this coastal Maine city on a Friday afternoon and was told a bed was available for him. But by the time he arrived on a bus from Bangor the next morning, the bed had been taken.

THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS | BY TERESA WILTZ | 06.15.16

Ryan had a pattern: He’d enroll in college with the best of intentions, start drinking and drugging, then drop out. Three years ago, as he prepared to enroll at the University of Miami, his fifth school, he had what he called a “white light moment.”

PENNLIVE | BY COLIN DEPPEN | 06.23.16

COUDERSPORT — Mayor Shane Nickerson glanced around the courtroom, with its sea of aging, wooden pews, and began: “My name is Shane and I’m an addict and alcoholic. I’ve been sober for 25 years.”

CLEVELAND.COM | BY JACKIE BORCHARDT | 06.13.16

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A person who calls 911 to save a friend who is overdosing won’t be arrested or punished for minor drug offenses under a new Ohio law.

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE | BY RICH LORD, J. BRADY MCCOLLOUGH AND ADAM SMELTZ | 05.22.16

Dr. Gary A. Shearer continued to prescribe painkillers, even as 14 of his patients died of drug overdoses, according to Kentucky investigators.