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Public health agencies and drug treatment centers nationwide are scrambling to battle an explosive increase in cases of hepatitis C, a scourge they believe stems at least in part from a surge in intravenous heroin use. In response, authorities are instituting or considering needle exchange programs but are often stymied by geography — many cases are in rural areas — and the cost of treatment in tight times. In Washington County, at the nation's eastern edge, the rate of the acute form of hepatitis C last year was the highest in a state that was already more than triple the national average. The problem, health officials there agree, is spurred by the surge in the use of heroin and other injectable drugs and the sharing of needles to get high. (Whittle, 8/13)

The young woman nursing a fresh black eye has come to the police station in this old fishing city for help. But she's not looking to report a crime or seek someone's arrest. She wants help kicking her heroin addiction. "It was better than the alternative," says the woman, in her mid-20s, as she waits wearily for her ride to a detox center, following a long night that involved a stint in the emergency room, wrestling with the early pains of withdrawal and, finally, sleep in a police holding cell. Gloucester is taking a novel approach to the war on drugs, making the police station a first stop for addicts on the road to recovery. Under a policy launched in June, heroin and opioid addicts who voluntarily turn themselves in at the station are fast-tracked into treatment services through a team of police officers, volunteers and trained clinicians. (Marcelo, 8/13)

Baltimore's top health official went to court Thursday to give out prescriptions for a medication that prevents overdoses as the city continues to look for innovative ways to curb rising deaths from heroin use. Dr. Leana Wen gave out the prescriptions for naloxone to 30 drug offenders at the Baltimore City Adult Drug Treatment Court, where they get drug treatment and academic and vocational training in lieu of traditional jail time.If administered properly, the life-saving drug quickly reverses the effects of overdose from opiod drugs such as heroin. (McDaniels, 8/13)

News from Kentucky and New Jersey along with campaigns in other states have rekindled interest in California efforts to force physicians to use the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System -- California's electronic monitoring system known as CURES. (Lauer, 8/13)

County officials from across Maryland packed an information session here Thursday, seeking guidance now that entrepreneurs are scouting locations to grow and sell marijuana for medical use. The General Assembly passed legislation this year and last to revise a 2013 law that had legalized the sale of medical marijuana in the state but was so restrictive that it attracted no proposals. Regulations have been drafted and, unless new snags emerge, people suffering from cancer, epilepsy and other ailments are expected to be able to purchase cannabis to relieve their symptoms by late 2016. (Dresser and Wood, 8/13)