PRIORITY

White House Plan Tackles Heroin Battle

New program focuses on treatment over prosecution.

The White House is expected to release a plan Monday aimed at tackling a national rise in fatal heroin overdoses, The Washington Post reports, citing two senior officials. The plan is a combined effort from law enforcement officials and public health workers to focus on treatment rather than prosecution of addicts as well as tracing the sources of heroin, according to the Post. The program would initially cost $2.5 million, funded by the White House Office of National Drug Control Police, and apply to 15 states. The amount of heroin overdoses in the U.S. nearly quadrupled between 2002 and 2013, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new program will collect data on overdoses and trends in heroin trafficking as well as train first responders on how to use medication to reverse overdoses.