The events, co-sponsored by L&I and the Governor's Industrial Safety and Health Advisory Board, will feature special training on drug recognition in the workplace, irrigation and trenching hazards, ladder safety, community trauma care, and more.
Marijuana is an impairing drug that has become substantially more potent since recreational use came into play, with some products containing upwards of 60 percent THC.
Health Commissioner Tom Farley said the sites would be medically supervised and provide services such as referral to treatment for drug use, access to sterile injection equipment, wound care, and the overdose-preventative naloxone.
The 61-page analysis identifies multiple key findings, including that men working in blue-collar industries with a higher risk of injury may be at increased risk for overdose death. About 705 -- 85 percent -- of the analyzed overdose deaths were opioid related.
The announcement came after 392 people died on NSW roads in 2017, with 42 of the deaths involving drug-affected drivers.
Before he became the state's "drug czar," Johnson had been director of the Huntington (W.Va.) Mayor's Office of Drug Control Policy and previously had served as police chief and officer for the city of Huntington for more than 40 years.
"The plateauing fatality rates indicate that what has been done to decrease deaths from alcohol-impaired driving has been working but is no longer sufficient to reverse this growing public health problem," Committee Chair Steven Teutsch said. "Our report offers a comprehensive blueprint to reinvigorate commitment and calls for systematic implementation of policies, programs, and systems changes to renew progress and save lives."
The new Michigan Automated Prescription System (MAPS) is now equipped with Appriss Health's NarxCare, a data analysis solution to improve patient care and also fight the opioid epidemic in the state.
"While we have made progress in combating the heroin and opioid abuse crisis and drastically expanded Pennsylvania's response, we are still losing far too many Pennsylvanians," Wolf said. "I am taking this step to protect Pennsylvanians from this looming public health crisis, and I am using every tool at my disposal to get those suffering from substance use disorders into treatment, save more lives, and improve response coordination."
If approved by voters, the measure would permit doctors to recommend a patient who is at least 18 years old for a state-issued medical marijuana license.
This reverses an Obama administration policy easing federal enforcement in the many states that have legalized either medical or recreational marijuana, but how this new policy will be carried out in the states was not immediately made clear.
It's easy to identify the biggest safety stories of 2017—they involve the year's repeated disasters.
Western provinces and territories continue to report higher rates of opioid-related deaths, and the data show fentanyl continues to be a growing problem in this crisis. From January to June 2017, 74 percent of apparent opioid-related deaths involved fentanyl or fentanyl analogs, compared to 53 percent during 2016.
Workers age 55 and older had 1,848 fatal injuries, the highest number for this age group since CFOI began reporting national data in 1992, and fatal injuries in the leisure and hospitality sector were up 32 percent year over year (from 225 to 298) and reached an all-time series high in 2016.
Ginette Petitpas Taylor, the federal Minister of Health, had announced in November that Health Canada would authorize emergency overdose prevention sites for provinces and territories that request them, as an "immediate short-term response to save lives."
"It's our goal to provide recovery house residents with a safe, supportive, and drug-and-alcohol-free environment during a critical time in their recovery journey," Gov. Tom Wolf said. "The legislation will require DDAP to create and maintain a publicly accessible registry of all licensed or certified drug and alcohol recovery houses within the commonwealth."
"The impact of opioids in the region we serve has been well documented," CareFirst President and Chief Executive Officer Chet Burrell said. "As the region's largest health insurer and one with a unique community mission, we want to take a comprehensive approach to address the opioid crisis for the greater community."
Her Dec. 11 blog post asks employers to support lowering the illegal BAC to .05 (g/dL) or lower and implementing primary seat belt laws in their communities they serve.
Officials released it Dec. 1. The plan was developed collaboratively by multiple agencies starting in July 2017.
Overdose deaths related to it jumped from 36 in 2012 to 106 in 2016, the Charleston Gazette-Mail's Eric Eyre reported.