The increasing heroin use and deaths due to overdose alarmed the United States government. The White House, to combat this growing threat, launched a $5 million program to battle against use and trafficking of drugs, especially in the East Coast, according to The Washington Post.
The White House is going to pair the law enforcement officials and public health workers. The program will get an initial funding from the White House National Drug Control Policy of $2.5 million.
The plan will focus on tracing the sources of heroin, as well as treating the users, NBC News learned. 15 drug intelligence officers and 15 health policy analyst will be gathering data on trends of trafficking and overdoses.
The data collected will be distributed to the local law enforcement. In addition, the program will also train primary responders on how to use medication that can countermand the overdose.
The U.S. officials reported in July that death due to opioid overdose in the country nearly quadrupled between 2002 and 2013.
Meanwhile, Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs and Sheriff Jerry Demings assembled a task force to put a stop to the drug outbreak in Florida. Orange and Osceola Counties reportedly had 90 heroin-related deaths in 2014, which is an 84 percent increase from 2013.
David Siegel, founder of Westgate Resorts Ltd., joined the newly formed Orange County Heroin Task Force, according to Orlando Sentinel.
Siegel's daughter, Victoria, died in June following a fatal overdose on prescription drugs. The time-share mogul wanted to do everything he could to save others from having the same fate.
"I didn't know my daughter was even on drugs until she died of an overdose," Siegel said. "It happens to everyone's children.
"No one's immune," he added.
Siegel announced the start of Victoria's Voice, a foundation that will unite families who lost their loved ones to drug abuse. The two-hour public meeting in Florida revealed that Sherriff Deming's brother also died from heroin addiction in 1999.
