Overdose Prevention

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has conditionally vetoed a 911 Good Samaritan law aimed at avoiding fatal drug overdoses. He's afraid it might let drug dealers "off the hook" and wants the legislature to study the issue for another year-and-a-half instead.

California will become the 10th state to enact a Good Samaritan law designed to reduce fatal drug overdoses by providing some protections from criminal prosecution for people seeking emergency help for overdose victims.

A bill designed to reduce overdose deaths by preventing the prosecution on drug charges of victims or people who seek emergency aid for them has passed the California legislature and awaits the governor's signature.

New Jersey will become the ninth state to enact a Good Samaritan drug overdose prevention law -- if Gov. Christie signs it into law.

A couple of dozen House members have introduced a bill aimed at reducing the steadily climbing toll from drug overdoses, most of them from prescription opioid pain relievers, by providing federal support for state and local prevention and education programs, including expanded use of naloxone.

The Senate has included federal funding for needle exchanges in its Health & Human Services FY 2013 appropriations bill. The House is expected to approve a bill without it, setting up a fight in conference committee down the road.

On Mother's Day, mothers speak out against the drug war, in the United States and Mexico.

Delegates to the UN's Commission on Narcotic Drugs have voted unanimously to endorse overdose prevention measures, including the use of the overdose reversal drug naloxone.

The New Mexico legislature has commissioned a study of emerging and evidence-based harm reduction practices, including supervised injection sites. That could lead the way to a pilot program there. There is also agitation for SIJs in San Francisco and New York City.

San Francisco distributes the opioid antagonist naloxone as a harm reduction measure to reduce overdose deaths. It's saved 600 lives in eight years.