White House to combat rise in US heroin deaths: Report
The White House plans to pair law enforcement officials with public health workers in an effort to combat the steep rise of heroin deaths in the United States.
As heroin overdoses and deaths soar in many parts of the US, the Obama administration’s plan will emphasize treatment rather than prosecution of addicts, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.
The program would initially be funded for $2.5 million by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and cover 15 states, the newspaper said, citing two senior officials.
"Our approach needs to be broad and inclusive,” the Post quoted a senior White House official as saying. “Law enforcement is only one part of what really needs to be a comprehensive public health, public safety approach.”
“Heroin is killing people and too often, public health goes one way and law enforcement goes the other," the official added.
The new program is a response to a sharp increase in heroin use and deaths in much of the nation, especially in northeastern states, including New York and New Jersey.
The death rate from heroin overdoses in the US nearly quadrupled between 2002 and 2013, US health officials said in a report in July.
The rising overdose deaths have been fueled by lower costs as well as increased abuse of prescription opiate painkillers, according to the report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Cities across the US are also experiencing a deadly epidemic of synthetic marijuana usage which can cause extreme reactions in some users, setting off alarm bells by law enforcement and public health officials.
There has been a dramatic surge in potentially lethal overdoses of “fake weed” and drug-related offenses nationwide, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
"We're seeing it pop up all around the country," acting DEA chief Chuck Rosenberg told NPR public radio this week.
Synthetic marijuana was the second most consumed drug among US high school students after marijuana, according to a 2012 survey by the University of Michigan.
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