SCRANTON TIMES-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL: …Statewide, the Pennsylvania State Coroners Association reported, 2,489 people died of drug-related causes in 2014, about seven people every day. And the trend has continued so far in 2015, the coroners said.
About half of those deaths were due to overdoses of heroin and other opioids. Although addiction overdoses were a primary cause, some deaths were due to overmedication for a variety of reasons…
There is some prospect for improvement in new state policies by which police and other first responders may administer the drug naloxone to overdose victims in the field, rather than waiting for the antidote to be delivered in emergency rooms, when it may be too late… (more)
