Overdose deaths trigger state action.

• Author: Widgery, Amber
• Position: TRENDS & TRANSITIONS

The alarming rise in drug-related deaths has lawmakers searching for solutions. Several state legislatures have enacted policies that encourage witnesses and people who overdose to call 911 to get help. Drug overdoses became the leading cause of injury death among people ages 25 to 64 in 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, surpassing even motor vehicle crashes.

Pharmaceuticals, including prescription painkillers such as Oxycontin and Vicodin, were responsible for 60 percent of the 38,329 drug overdose deaths in 2010, according to the CDC. But it's heroin--blamed in the recent high-profile deaths of actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and Cory Monteith--that has seen a resurgence of use, according to law enforcement officials.

Heroin is cheaper and easier to obtain than prescription opioid painkillers and has nearly identical effects. Heroin users often begin by abusing prescription opioids and then resort to heroin after their tolerance builds and their addiction becomes increasingly expensive. Recent surveys by the National Institute on Drug Abuse show that nearly half the young people who inject heroin reported abusing prescription opioids first.

Once primarily an inner-city problem, heroin is becoming increasingly prevalent in suburban and rural areas, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. The resurgence in heroin use is...