MONEY WELL SPENT

NYPD to Carry Heroin Antidote

To deal with surge in overdoses.

In response to a spike in heroin overdoses, New York City police officers will start carrying antidotes to save people who overdose. The New York Attorney General’s Office has given the New York Police Department $1.17 million from civil and criminal forfeiture cases to outfit officers with 19,500 kits, which include two syringes and two inhalers of naloxone. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has called the drug “stunningly effective.” Between 2010 and 2012, heroin deaths increased 84 percent, following a four-year decline. The amount of heroin seized in New York City this year has already surpassed any year going back to 1991.