Heroin problems outpace Michigan’s solutions

By CAITLIN McARTHUR
The Capital News Service
LANSING — As Michigan struggles to keep up with its growing heroin and opioid addictions, only one state intervention might be working. Traverse City police in April were able to reverse an overdose using naloxone, a drug that can help restore breathing after a heroin or opioid overdose, said Pamela Lynch, consultant and therapist at Northern Lakes Community Mental Health in Traverse City. This was possible because recent state laws allowed doctors to prescribe the drug to people who can administer it, such as police officers, and not just to those who need it. In the Traverse City case, police revived a driver who had crashed into a stop sign while overdosing on heroin. Officers who were the first responders on the scene pulled the driver from the car and administered a dose of naloxone.