New Hampshire governor calls drug initiative good first step

The plan would concentrate on tracing the sources of heroin, the place a lethal opiate additive blamed for a rising share of current overdose deaths is being added and who’s distributing the drug to sellers, the newspaper stated. The input of public health officials helps with training first-responders to quickly use medications like naloxone that could reverse the effects of heroin, thereby preventing deaths.

The White House on Monday announced a new strategy to fight heroin that emphasizes the public health aspects of the epidemic and pairs medical experts with law enforcement officials. “The new Heroin Response Strategy demonstrates a strong commitment to address the heroin and prescription opioid epidemic as both a public health and a public safety issue”, National Drug Control Policy Director Michael Botticelli said in a news release.

While state officials said they aren’t yet sure what the new funding will mean for Connecticut, specifically, the focus of the initiative is in line with several projects and programs that have already been put in place in the state.

The new approach to confront the spike in heroin use comes as President Barack Obama is attempting to cut prison sentences for people convicted of non-violent, drug-related offenses, including some involving heroin.

While heroin use is most common among young, poor men, the CDC says the biggest risk factor for addiction is opioid addiction. Moreover, heroin users tend to be addicted to other opiate prescription drugs, marijuana and alcohol, which increases their likelihood of overdosing.

At the same time, treatment programs are in short supply, and Mercy Recovery Center in Westbrook closing this summer further reduced the programs addicts can turn to try to cure their addictions.

Commenting on the new plan, a senior White House official said, “Our approach needs to be broad and inclusive”.

Delaware will receive a chunk of federal funding to reduce trafficking, distribution and use of heroin under a new initiative from the White House. Overdoses have also risen by more than 400 percent since 2002, U.S. health officials said Sunday.

“We need to be talking about it and treating it like an illness, and not like some moral failure”, Christie said in May during a roundtable discussion on the heroin epidemic in Manchester, New Hampshire, according to the Newark Star-Ledger. Ditri told of how psychiatrists and emergency department staff at three competing health systems have worked together with local prosecutors and law enforcement on a program to tackle heroin as a public health issue.

No immediate comments were available from the White House.

The teams will cover a swath of the US stretching from Maine to Tennessee, where authorities are struggling with problems such as cheap street heroin being laced with high-potency narcotics and people who are becoming addicts in alarming numbers, particularly in small rural towns with little history of the drug.