slimvictor
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2008
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White House drug czar R. Gil Kerlikowske on Tuesday called for making naloxone, a drug that has been highly effective at reversing heroin overdoses, more widely available to emergency-care providers and other first responders.
Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, also urged states and local communities to pass "good Samaritan" laws to provide immunity from criminal prosecution to individuals who call for emergency help during an overdose.
The comments come as focus on the growing number of heroin overdoses has sharpened after the death of Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died Feb. 2. He was found in his New York City apartment with packets of the drug and a needle in his arm.
Heroin was involved in 3,038 overdose deaths in 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During a conference call Tuesday with reporters, Kerlikowske said that relying on law enforcement alone wouldn't solve the problem and that the Obama administration was focused on treating addiction and preventing overdoses.
"We are not going to arrest our way out of this drug problem," the former Seattle police chief said. He praised the president's Affordable Care Act for requiring insurance companies to cover substance abuse treatment in the same way they do other chronic diseases.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-heroin-abuse-20140212,0,4774777.story#ixzz2t5fhU500
Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, also urged states and local communities to pass "good Samaritan" laws to provide immunity from criminal prosecution to individuals who call for emergency help during an overdose.
The comments come as focus on the growing number of heroin overdoses has sharpened after the death of Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died Feb. 2. He was found in his New York City apartment with packets of the drug and a needle in his arm.
Heroin was involved in 3,038 overdose deaths in 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During a conference call Tuesday with reporters, Kerlikowske said that relying on law enforcement alone wouldn't solve the problem and that the Obama administration was focused on treating addiction and preventing overdoses.
"We are not going to arrest our way out of this drug problem," the former Seattle police chief said. He praised the president's Affordable Care Act for requiring insurance companies to cover substance abuse treatment in the same way they do other chronic diseases.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-heroin-abuse-20140212,0,4774777.story#ixzz2t5fhU500
