In his California laboratory, Kim Janda is amazed by the amount of heroin he can give to rats without killing them.

Janda has created a vaccine that makes rodents immune to huge amounts of the drug and reduces the animals' urge to relapse into the dark hole of heroin addiction - a place all too familiar to a growing number of Americans.

It is a ray of promise in the battle against opiate addiction. Drug overdose deaths - fueled primarily by prescription painkillers and heroin - have tripled in the United States over the last three decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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State Legislature, Health Organizations Tackling Addiction Issue.

BUTLER COUNTY - More babies are being born dependent on illegal drugs each year in Ohio.

Babies suffering from Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome - defined as a group of problems a baby experiences when withdrawing from exposure to narcotics - has increased six-fold from 2004 to 2011, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

The number has risen from 14 per 10,000 live births to now 88 per 10,000 live births.

"It's an epidemic that's sorely under-resourced right now," said Michele Stokes, clinical director of women's and perioperative services at Mercy Health Fairfield Hospital.

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In an effort to better understand the consequences of drug use in Lake County, the county's General Health District recently released a report on unintentional drug overdoses in the county.

Partnering with Lake Health and the Lake County Opiate Task Force, the report details many different statistics about accidental drug overdoses, which saw an increase to 42 in 2013 compared with 36 in 2012, 37 in 2011 and 35 in 2010.

Dr. David Keep, a pathologist at Lake Health and at the Lake County Coroner's Office, said he was inspired to gather accurate local overdose data more quickly, as the problem seemed to really increase around 2010.

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To the Editor:

If Ohio and American citizens honestly want to lower heroin addiction rates ("Heroin Scourge Mainly Hitting the Young," The NEWS, May 7), end cannabis (marijuana) prohibition. An important reason to end cannabis prohibition that doesn't get mentioned is because it increases hard drug addiction rates. It puts citizen who choose to use the relatively safe plant into contact with people who often also sell hard drugs.

Further, government claims that heroin is no worse than cannabis and methamphetamine and cocaine is less harmful by insisting that cannabis is a Schedule I substance alongside heroin, while methamphetamine and cocaine are only Schedule II substances.

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People in Colorado have a medical-marijuana law and a recreational-marijuana law. They also have the law of unintended consequences.

For example, businesses that legally sell marijuana under state law sometimes have to spray their cash with air freshener or the banks won't accept it - because the money smells like marijuana and selling pot remains illegal under federal law, which regulates banks.

A medical-marijuana patient in Colorado can't legally buy a firearm, faces potential eviction from federal housing projects and might be prohibited from receiving veterans benefits.

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This is the third article in a series that's focusing on heroin and related drugs' growth, prevention, treatment, distribution, law enforcement and policy in Athens County and southeast Ohio.

One of the more unsettling trends to emerge as the use of heroin has grown throughout the state, especially in rural Ohio, is that problems now involve a much younger group of individuals than was the case 10 years ago.

Health Recovery Services Executive Director Dr. Joe Gay called the shift a "shocking pattern" in a 2012 report.

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TOLEDO (AP) - A petition drive has begun to decriminalize the use of marijuana in Toledo.

Members of Toledo's chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws began collecting signatures on Tuesday to put the measure before voters.

Mary Smith, a spokeswoman for the group, said supporters have collected 2,800 signatures so far and need 3,800 more to get the ordinance on Toledo's November ballot.

The measure would prohibit police from citing or arresting someone for having, selling or using marijuana. It also would prohibit city prosecutors from trying marijuana cases.

The drive is separate from a statewide effort to legalize medical marijuana in Ohio.

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BUTLER COUNTY - A grassroots effort to tackle the growing use of heroin in the community hosted a day-long workshop Saturday for affected family and friends.

The Butler County Opiate Abuse Task Force, formed last September, brought in speakers to Miami University Hamilton Downtown to address the physiology of addiction and how it impacts the body, emergency treatment for overdoses, as well as offer up tips for better communication and advocacy skills.

Susan Lipnickey, chair of the opiate abuse task force and a Miami professor, said the task force meets monthly and is broken into three areas: friends and family; treatment providers; and community and educati on.

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TOLEDO - A petition drive has begun to decriminalize the use of marijuana in Toledo.

Members of Toledo's chapter of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws began collecting signatures on Tuesday to put the measure before voters. Mary Smith, a spokeswoman for the group, said supporters have collected 2,800 signatures so far and need 3,800 more to get the ordinance on Toledo's November ballot, according to WTOL-TV, (http://bit.ly/Qr8BL1).

"We're ready now as citizens to have a fresh, mature discussion about the pros and cons of marijuana use and how our laws reflect that," said Sean Nestor, who's also with the group. The measure, known as The Sensible Marijuana Ordinance, would prohibit police from citing or arresting someone for having, selling or using marijuana. It also would prohibit city prosecutors from trying marijuana cases.

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The group must collect 350,000 valid signatures to get a petition on the November ballot.

Ohio Rights Group volunteer Mike Schreffler of Massillon used Election Day to try to collect signatures from voters to get a petition on the November ballot to legalize the use of medical marijuana and hemp.

The group must collect 350,000 valid signatures, said Schreffler. Standing outside the polling location at Grace Community Church on Hankins Road Tuesday, Schreffler wasn't having much success. He had collected just three signatures in three hours earlier in the day, and came back out around 5:30 p.m. to try again.

[end]

Less than two years ago, the death of 21-year-old Miami student Andy Supronas became the first public case of heroin use within Miami University.

"That was one of the first publicly-known issues," said Lt. Jacob Jones of the Oxford Police Department (OPD). "We've had more [issues] since then."

March 1 of this year, the Butler County Coroner reported the death of an Oxford man from a fentanyl overdose, a prescription opiate commonly found in or as a replacement for heroin.

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Ali and Adam Oliver aren't sure what they'd think about medical marijuana if it weren't for Alex.

Maybe they'd vote no if the issue were on a ballot, or not care much either way.

As it is, 5-year-old Alex, the younger of the Upper Arlington couple's two sons, has endured seizures every day for most of his life, some so severe that he has to go to a hospital, where doctors force him into a coma to stop the erratic brain activity.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - The county and police won't likely be seeking charges against students because of any positive drug tests at St. Edward, St. Ignatius or Gilmour Academy high schools, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's office and police said this week.

Because the schools are not required to report positive tests to police, and because having evidence of drugs in your body is not a crime, in and of itself, prosecutors don't expect to be involved at all in the testing that will start at those three schools in the fall.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - The student drug testing that will start at Gilmour Academy and at St. Edward and St. Ignatius high schools has a close family connection: St. Edward President James Kubacki's brother, Raymond, is head of the testing company.

Raymond Kubacki, a St. Ignatius graduate, has been President and CEO of Psychemedics Corporation since 1991. That connection was not mentioned to students, or in letters to parents of the three schools when they announced the testing on Monday.

Officials at all three schools said this morning that James Kubacki has been up front about any possible conflict of interest throughout discussions between the schools. The boards of all three schools, they said, were fully aware of the connection well before each school separately selected Psychemedics.

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COLUMBUS -- Shannon Garrison, Savannah Chaffey and Mikaela Franks are juniors at Northwestern High School in Wayne County.

On Wednesday, the three donned plastic ponchos and stood in the rain outside the Ohio Statehouse, showing their support for teens who choose to refrain from using drugs. They want to be role models for other students who may feel pressured into drug abuse and addiction.

"I just want to be the positive influence on those kids," Garrison said.

The teens have heard rumors of heroin and prescription drug use in their school, though they said they don't know anyone who has indulged.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - The drug testing program that three Catholic schools in the area will start this fall won't be coming to your public school district.

It can't. The U.S. Constitution probably won't allow it.

But your school could easily start a lesser one. It could follow the lead of several Ohio districts, including Brunswick, Highland and Vermilion, who test students participating in extracurricular activities.

Gilmour Academy, St. Edward and St. Ignatius high schools announced on Tuesday plans to drug test every student this fall, followed by random tests throughout the year.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - St. Edward High School responded to parents and students late yesterday about the family connection between school President James Kubacki and the drug testing company that will test students at St. Ed's, St. Ignatius and Gilmour Academy.

The three schools announced Monday that they will be testing the hair of all students for drugs in a proactive effort to prevent addiction and counsel students that test positive for drugs.

The Plain Dealer reported yesterday that the head of the company, Psychemedics Corp., is Kubacki's brother Raymond. In that story, representatives of all three schools said they were fully aware of that connection throughout their decision-making process.

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LAKEWOOD, Ohio - Despite concerns about a comprehensive new drug-screening program, some students at St. Edward High School said it is for the best.

Four St. Ed juniors spent nearly an hour talking to The Plain Dealer today, after they attended a closed-door presentation by school administrators that included a question-and-answer period.

"The administration is trying to protect us. They are not on the offensive," said student Hassan Sayed of Westlake. "They are being defensive. They are trying to protect us and do what's best for us."

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It didn't take long after a Plain Dealer story about drug testing coming to three area high schools this fall posted Tuesday before cleveland.com readers began sharing their opinions. Many questioned the motives of the schools -- Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills, St. Edward High School in Lakewood, and St. Ignatius High School on Cleveland's West Side -- and whether or not students' privacy was at stake.

Others who applauded the move wrote that school-wide drug testing is a necessary measure to keep children safe, to deter them from trying drugs and to and provide much-needed help to those who have already gone down that path.

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Ed FitzGerald, Democratic candidate for governor, says a House Republican plan to spend $45 million on heroin-addiction treatment would just siphon that money away from other mental-health services.

The Kasich administration says it's not that simple.

FitzGerald, who is also the elected Cuyahoga County executive, said in a news release yesterday that his county alone would lose $7.5 million for mental-health services if the Ohio Senate approves - and Gov. John Kasich signs - the House-passed legislation including the drug-treatment funding.

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