In 2014 there were more drug and alcohol overdose deaths in Baltimore than people killed on the streets.  Heroin was responsible for 63% of those.  To make matters worse, the lifesaving antidote for opioid overdoses has more than doubled.  Now, local leaders are taking action. A Baltimore task force taking on heroin was looking for a new approach to an old problem, and after 9 months, the group has a list of recommendations to battle the epidemic.  Part of the plan includes getting the overdose antidote naloxone out to the people who need it. "I have given it to literally hundreds of patients and watched as someone who stopped breathing walk and talk again within seconds,” said Baltimore City Health Commissioner, Dr. Leana Wen.  “We have to get naloxone into the hands of every person who can save a life."

The city of Baltimore is tackling the heroin epidemic. There's a new push in preventing overdoses using the ever more-expensive drug naloxone. The focus of the task force is saving lives. A billboard is part of that effort. The price of naloxone continues to skyrocket. It's a drug widely used by EMS crews to counteract heroin and opium-based pill overdoses.

In the space of just a few hours, we’ve dropped off flyers to a dozen recreation centers, visited a health clinic, listened in on a senior citizen symposium, and spoken at two neighborhood association meetings. Though with three desks tucked into a quiet corner of the Health Department’s headquarters, it is rare to find us there for very long.