NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Expands Heroin Overdose Prevention Program

by Kelsey Schappell | 05/13/2014 | 3:52pm

NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman Expands Heroin Overdose Prevention Program

The Attorney General is now partnering with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to help prevent heroine overdoses.

Susan Salomone lost her son, Justin, to a heroin overdose nearly two years ago.

Now, she's helping to make sure other parents don't have to go through the same thing. The Putnam County resident said heroin overdoses aren't just an inner-city problem.

"This is an epidemic," she said. "We need everyone to come forward and talk about it so that we can erase the stigma attached to the people that are suffering from this disease."

That's why Salomone supports Attorney General Schneiderman's expansion of his heroin overdose prevention program. Community Overdose Prevention, or COP, will equip trained members of the MTA police force to carry Naloxone, a drug that helps revive a person from an overdose at the scene.

"If you're on a train or a subway or on any other part of the MTA system, there is no health care available. There are no EMT's. The only hope you have is that the MTA police would have Naloxone," said Schneiderman.

The NYPD has already adopted the program, and the MTA Police Chief says he hopes to have 600 officers trained to use the naloxone kits by the fall.

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