Overdose Prevention

Good Samaritan and Naloxone bills were signed into law in Vermont Wednesday.

Separate overdose prevention and syringe exchange bills were approved by the Colorado legislature this week. They now go to the governor's desk.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who vetoed a Good Samaritan overdose bill last fall, has reached an agreement with legislators, folding Good Samaritan language into a naloxone overdose prevention bill. That's a twofer for New Jersey!

The drug czar's office released the 2013 National Drug Control Strategy Wednesday. It talks a good game, but much remains the same.

The District of Columbia has now joined ten states in implementing 911 Good Samaritan laws designed to reduce overdose deaths by removing the fear of arrest and prosecution from victims and witnesses who seek medical help.

The Norwegian government wants to decriminalize heroin smoking as a harm reduction measure in a bid to reduce overdoses.

It may soon be harder for patients to get access to hydrocodone-based pain relievers like Vicodin after an FDA advisory panel recommended moving them from Schedule III to Schedule II in an effort to prevent overdoses and addiction.

The New Jersey legislature has taken a step toward passing a bill that would expand access to the anti-overdose drug naloxone. The bill now heads for a Senate floor vote, but awaits action in the House.

Naloxone has already reversed some 10,000 opioid drug overdoses, and a new study suggests its wider distribution could save thousands more at a very low cost.

In some ways, 2012 has been a year of dramatic, exciting change in drug policy, as the edifice of global drug prohibition appears to crumble before our eyes. In other ways it's still business as usual in the drug war. Here, we look at the biggest drug policy stories of the year.