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Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin) said reporting known or suspected overdoses to a central database would help first responders coordinate their responses. (Whitney Downard\/Pennsylvania Capital-Star)<\/p>\n
Starting this year, emergency medical service providers are now required to report known or suspected overdoses to a statewide mapping system overseen by the Pennsylvania State Police.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the result of a new law sponsored by Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin).\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Overdose Information Network previously included reports from law enforcement, which Mastriano said excluded an estimated 80% of fatal and nonfatal overdoses where EMS responded.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t just data collection,\u201d said Mastriano. \u201cIt\u2019s about saving lives.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Collecting information in one place could allow first responders to identify \u201cbad batches\u201d of drugs, such as concoctions with higher amounts of fentanyl or other addictive compounds, Mastriano said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of us are flawed people, sinners, and we struggle with things. And sometimes people end up in the throes of addiction,\u201d said Mastriano. \u201cWhen people are stuck in addiction, we don\u2019t want them to die in Pennsylvania. We want to try to save their lives.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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An interactive data report from the Pennsylvania Office of Drug Surveillance and Misuse Prevention breaks down overdose data, including demographic information.<\/p>\n
In 2023, 4,719 Pennsylvanians died from an overdose<\/a> and there were 37,371 nonfatal suspected overdoses, according to the state Department of Health. Fatal overdoses dropped by 29% in 2024 to 3,341 \u2014 though the most recent state report<\/a> doesn\u2019t include a figure for nonfatal overdoses.\u00a0<\/p>\n Senate Bill 89<\/a>, now Act 18, passed both chambers unanimously and was signed into law in June. A companion bill sponsored by Mastriano, Senate Bill 92<\/a>, passed out of the Senate in April on a 33-16 vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n It would impose a mandatory 25-year minimum sentence<\/a> on anyone who sells or distributes fentanyl that kills another person. The proposal targets dealers who might otherwise \u201ccut deals for lenient sentencing,\u201d as detailed in an accompanying memo.\u00a0<\/p>\n The measure hasn\u2019t advanced in the House.<\/p>\n Mastriano left the stage after his portion of the press conference, and did not respond to questions about whether or not he would run for governor.\u00a0<\/p>\n He was resoundingly defeated<\/a> by now-Gov. Josh Shapiro in 2022. Opponents of his campaign repeatedly highlighted Mastriano\u2019s role<\/a> in supporting President Donald Trump\u2019s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, including his presence outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when rioters stormed the building and drove Congress from its chambers to disrupt the vote certification.\u00a0<\/p>\n Shapiro is expected to officially launch his campaign for reelection this week. State Treasurer Stacy Garrity received the Pennsylvania GOP\u2019s endorsement for the party\u2019s nomination in September, but Mastriano hasn\u2019t ruled out running again. No other Republican has announced plans to run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin) said reporting known or suspected overdoses to a central database would help first responders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2892,8006,351,3831,40547,40548,40549,40550,5560,28,30,29,1224],"class_list":["post-80892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-criminal-justice","tag-doug-mastriano","tag-fatal","tag-health-care","tag-nonfatal","tag-opioid-overdose","tag-opioid-overdoses","tag-overdose","tag-overdoses","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pennsylvania-state-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}