Oregon has been named one of 16 states across the nation to receive federal funding through a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant that aims to combat opiate abuse and overdoses—which are reaching epidemic levels. According to Street Roots, the goals of the grant include reducing the use of Oxycontin and similar medications and eliminating overlapping prescriptions where ever possible.

According to one Multnomah County official, there were 109 involving opiates in 2014, with about half of those incidents involving prescription drugs.

The grant award comes at the same time the Oregon Health Authority launches its State Health Improvement Plan, which has similar goals of reducing opioid overdoses across the state. Both the CDC grant and the OHA will help make naloxone, an opiate overdose reversing drug, more accessible throughout the region.

With recreational marijuana sales now legal in Oregon, officials in Multnomah County are looking for ways to address numerous concerns on how it will impact public health. This week, the county Department of Health presented a report recommending policies to help prevent marijuana dependence, impaired driving and access to youth.

Portland Tribune: “The report — one of the County Health Department’s regular Vital Signs data reports on emerging public health issues — attempts to bring some unbiased information to the issue since most research comes from the drug control side or advocacy side. It recommends that the public should be informed about possible risks related to use during pregancy and breastfeeding, and that policies be developed to limit product contaminants and products with high or unknown potencies.”

Although obesity continues to be a major problem for people in poverty across the United States, a newly released CDC study indicates that low-income families do not consume any more fast food than other Americans. The study challenges conventional wisdom about who eats the most unhealthy fast food.

Time: “[The study] finds that there’s no correlation between fast-food intake and poverty status. Covering 2011 and 2012, the CDC study found that about a third of adolescents and children consumed fast food on a given day. Children in the poorest group, from families earning less than 130% of the federal poverty level (currently about $26,000 for a family of three), get 11.5% of their calories from fast food, compared with about 13% for richer kids.”

CBS News reports that a three-year-old girl in Texas has been diagnosed with type-2 diabetes, making her one of the youngest people ever to have the condition. Physicians at a pediatric endocrinology clinic reportedly ran tests on the girl, who weighs 77 pounds. The average weight for a toddler her age is about 35 pounds.

According to medical research professionals with the University of Texas Health Science Center, the incidence rate of children with type-2 diabetes has risen sharply in recent years on a global scale. They also note that currently, type-1 diabetes is still more common in young children than type 2.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are about 5,000 new type-2 diabetes cases for those under the age of 20 each year across the country.

Chicago Tribune: “While [type-2] diabetes can be reversed through early diagnosis and proper treatment…this is often not the case unless a child’s family dynamics are completely overhauled. Children with type-2 diabetes often have parents who struggle with their own weight issues and dietary choices, so they are living in an environment that does not promote healthy eating or physical activity.”

A new CDC report indicates that heroin is back in a big way, with overdose deaths nearly quadrupling between 2002 and 2013. In fact, the White House recently held a summit on the issue and is introducing a number of measures to reduce heroin addiction and overdose rates across the country. And now the CDC has announced a $20 million effort to fight overdoses in the U.S.

The Hill: “The grants to 16 states come as part of a new program aimed at helping states fight a growing epidemic. The funds will go to measures such as developing electronic databases to track drugs dispensed in the state and to educating providers about good prescribing practices for pain medication.”