NorthCountryNow.com and North Country This Week have been honored with a first place award for “In Depth Reporting” in the New York Press Association’s annual “Better Newspaper Contest.”

Competing with large weekly and small daily newspapers statewide, NorthCountryNow.com was recognized for a series of stories on the growing heroin addiction problem in St. Lawrence County and steps being taken to address the issue.

“This might be the most comprehensive information gathering of the contest,” wrote the judges. “Great use of data. Tremendous range of interviews.” The reporting revealed county heroin and opioid overdose and death rates are among the highest in the state, with at least 31 opioid-related deaths in the last five years.

North Country This Week was also recognized for quality ad layout and design, receiving third place award for “Best Multi-Advertiser Pages” for last November’s “Holiday Showcase” section created by Lisa Hoover, Cathy Whalen and Georgia Schiavone. “Clean and well done,” wrote the judges.

Both awards were presented at the NYPA annual convention in Saratoga Springs April 7 and 8.

To read the eight stories about the heroin issue, visit NorthCountryNow.com/InDepth

Multiple “freedom of information” requests seeking data about county heroin deaths and overdoses were delayed several times by the state Health Department in early 2016. So Associate Editor Jimmy Lawton worked with the Assemblywoman’s Addie Jenne’s Legislative Director Sean Ewart, area police and other experts to obtain the information.

State law has since been changed, requiring opioid-related hospital stays and naloxone use to be reported quarterly and posted publicly.

The series of NorthCountryNow.com articles reported:

• Some area police department officers now carry and have administered the heroin-antidote naloxone (Feb. 6).

• Massena Mayor Timmy Currier called on Massena Memorial Hospital to open a drug abuse treatment facility, but the hospital CEO explained why his institution would not do so (Feb. 13).

• A dramatic ten-fold increase in heroin investigations was recorded by the county Drug Task Force over the past five years (March 2).

• Heroin users can access a needle exchange program that protects them from arrest; Assistant Editor Andy Gardner also explained how citizens are trained and authorized to carry and administer naloxone to be prepared to respond to heroin overdoses (May 4).

• Assemblywoman Jenne co-sponsored two related bills, one requiring law enforcement officers to carry naloxone, the other improving tracking and reporting of heroin- and opioid-related deaths (May 28).

In July, NorthCountryNow.com finally obtained Department of Health data that revealed both emergency room admissions and hospital stays for opioid- and heroin-related overdoses had nearly doubled in the past five years in St. Lawrence County. Only Bronx County had a higher rate of opioid-related hospital stays. And at least 31 people died from opiate and heroin overdoses in the past five years out of a population of 111,000 (July 6).

Meanwhile, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation requiring the state Commissioner of Health to report county-level data on opioid overdoses and use of naloxone every quarter so this information will now be easier for the media and citizens to obtain.

By November, NorthCountryNow.com reported the number of people who deliver clean needles to local IV drug users had quadrupled (Nov. 12).

Second place winner in the “In Depth Reporting” category for weeklies over 8,000 circulation and dailies was the Plattsburgh Press Republican, for stories dealing with the Dannemora prison break; third place recipient was The Smithtown News.

In the “Best Multi-Advertiser Pages” category for large weekly papers, first place winner was the Port Washington News and second place recipient was Dan’s Papers of Bridgehampton.

A total of 184 newspapers participated, submitting 2,957 entries in 67 categories.