Kentucky Officials Look for Local Heroin Solutions

After a bill aimed at stemming Kentucky's growing heroin problem failed to pass during the state's legislative session, officials say local solutions to the statewide problem are limited but that they are pushing ahead.

The bill would have provided funding for needle exchanges to slow disease transmission, and allowed first responders to carry heroin overdose antidotes.

Dr. Bonnie Hedrick of the Northern Kentucky Agency for Drug Abuse Policy says her organization has already begun needle cleanup projects and is pushing local doctors to prescribe the antidote to addicts.

Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force Director Bill Mark says unless Gov. Steve Beshear calls the Legislature into a special session to consider the bill, his organization has few tools to fight the state's growing heroin problem.