Hooked on Heroin
Latest
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The fight for heroin crisis funding: ‘We don’t need billboards. We need treatment’
Maryland and Virginia lawmakers are offering proposals to expand access to drug treatment programs, but there has been an institutional reluctance to fund the kind of treatment that one former drug czar says is most effective. In the final story in her series “Hooked on Heroin,” WTOP’s Jamie Forzato looks ahead to this year’s legislative session and discusses what lawmakers are preparing to do.
2 years ago -
Access to a ‘godsend’ anti-overdose drug expands
When Ginny Lovitt found her brother had overdosed in 2013, there was nothing she could do “but call 911 and wait” while he died. Since then, she has made it her personal mission to teach anyone who will listen about a life-saving drug that can bring someone back from the brink of death. In the fourth story of her Hooked on Heroin series, WTOP’s Jamie Forzato examines naloxone, the efforts to put it in more hands and the obstacles that remain.
2 years ago -
Educating ‘clueless’ parents about the dangers of opioids and their kids
Don Wood and his wife helped their son Donnie go through two rounds of rehab. They let him move in with them; they kicked him out. They supported him financially; they gave him ultimatums. But when Donnie was 32, Don found his lifeless body on the bed. In the third story of her Hooked on Heroin series, WTOP’s Jamie Forzato explains how kids get addicted, how early the problem can start and what’s being done to combat the problem.
2 years ago -
‘Octopus from hell’: How pain meds contribute to the heroin epidemic
“Why pay $40 for an OxyContin pill when I can buy a $10 bag of heroin?” In the second part of her Hooked on Heroin series, WTOP’s Jamie Forzato explores the path from the over-prescription of opioid painkillers to heroin addiction, and what’s being done to change it.
2 years ago -
Heart-stopping: Death toll skyrockets as designer opioids infiltrate local drug trade
In the first story in WTOP’s Hooked on Heroin series, Jamie Forzato explains why deaths from overdoses of heroin and other opioids are on a sharp rise in the D.C. area and nationwide, and illustrates the human toll.
2 years ago
