Heroin Overdoses

(Boston) AP - House and Senate negotiators have reached an agreement on a final version of a bill designed to address the state's deadly opioid addiction crisis. The bill would limit initial opiate painkiller prescriptions to a seven-day supply and set an evaluation requirement within 24 hours for overdose victims seeking help at hospital emergency rooms...

Why are there so many heroin overdoses all of a sudden? It's happening here and all across the country. And the short answer is people are reportedly overdosing on dangerous narcotics like fentanyl that has been mixed with heroin. To put this in perspective, fentanyl is 30 times more potent than heroin and is usually used for painful surgical procedures...

Heroin use has spread far beyond from under the bridges of urban cities and into the quiet solitude of predominately white, middle-class bedroom towns. What's causing the rise in use in small town America? Maybe the 'country folk' are restless and looking for some cheap thrills...

Gov. Deval Patrick has declared a public health emergency in Massachusetts in response to the state's growing epidemic of heroin overdoses and opioid addiction.

Massachusetts state police say 185 people have died of heroin overdoses during the last four months, but that does not include fatal overdoses in the state's three largest cities.       The overdoses were largely concentrated in southeastern Massachusetts, western Massachusetts, the Merrimack Valley and Middlesex County...

U.S. Sen. Edward Markey is set to join President Barack Obama's drug czar in Massachusetts to discuss ways of curbing fatalities caused by prescription drug abuse and an epidemic of heroin deaths this year.       Markey and R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, will be in Taunton on Monday to review methods that have proven effective in combating

Public safety officials throughout Bristol County have acknowledged a dramatic spike in heroin overdoses cases. Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson addressed the crisis during his monthly appearance on WBSM's "More Than Just Talk" program...

The southeastern Massachusetts city of Taunton is trying to combat a recent spike in heroin overdoses.       City leaders and law enforcement officials held a community forum on Monday night to discuss what might be done including prevention, treatment and stricter enforcement...