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President Joe Biden’s calls in his State of the Union speech for strong criminal penalties in response to soaring deaths linked to the potent opioid fentanyl are being rebuked by harm reduction advocates who say that approach could make the problem worse, even as some in Congress jeered the comments and blamed the Democrat’s border policies for deepening the crisis. The reactions laid bare how preventing drug deaths touches on deep political, practical and philosophical differences even in addressing an unrelenting U.S. overdose crisis connected to more than 100,000 deaths a year. (Mulvihill, 2/9)

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Biden highlighted a recent policy change aimed at increasing access to a medication for opioid use disorder. ... He was referring to a provision wrapped into the omnibus funding bill, which Biden signed into law in December. It eliminated a requirement that medical providers obtain special waivers to prescribe buprenorphine, a painkiller that also reduces opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms. (Bendix, 2/9)

A new deadly drug is showing up on the streets of San Francisco and it's poised to push the overdose death toll even higher. "It's a stronger analog of Fentanyl," said Jacquie Berlinn, Co-founder of Mother's Against Drug Addiction and Deaths, "It's very scary." Berlinn is referring to Isotonitazene, also known as ISO- a synthetic opioid is at least 20 times more potent than Fentanyl. The illicit drug is a concern for Berlinn, whose son has been battling drug addiction for more than a decade. (Campbell, 2/8)

“They’re using any data they can get their hands on to track xylazine and its complicated set of symptoms and effects on users,” said Richa Ranade, senior director of overdose prevention at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. (Vestal, 2/8)

Just last month, Montgomery County Commissioner John Shaw said, the county experienced four opioid overdose deaths over the span of seven days. While state data show that there are almost 11 opioid deaths per day in North Carolina, four deaths in a week in the central Piedmont county of only 26,000 people was particularly poignant. (Crumpler, 2/9)

Officials in New Hampshire’s largest city are forming teams to take a closer look at nine suspected overdose deaths this month, seven of them over a couple of days. A group of 20 service providers representing federal, state and local agencies held an emergency meeting Tuesday in Manchester to discuss what happened, WMUR-TV reported. (2/8)

Librarians will tell you the role of public libraries hasn’t changed — they’ve always been a community space open to all, with a mission to educate and serve. What changes is the world outside, and whatever is going on in society, will go on in the library. The rise in homelessness, untreated mental illness and drug use have forced libraries to adapt, from extensive staff training in how to de-escalate outbursts to hiring social workers and security guards. (Prentzel and Brown, 2/9)

John Arnold with Coast Cannabis in Bay St. Louis is on a mission to help people beat something he struggled with for years: opioid addiction. For Arnold, his addiction started after he broke his foot in 18 places thanks to an injury at work in 2004.“[The] only alternative to my pain was to get more surgeries or take the narcotic pain pills that they were prescribing me,” he said. (Rivers, 2/6)