 Police officers across New York City will soon carry medications to reverse the effects of an overdose from heroin or opioid prescription pills, officials are set to announce Tuesday, expanding from a successful program on Staten Island to all precincts citywide. Officers in nearby Suffolk County have been participating in a pilot program with the kits since 2012. On Friday, officers on Staten Island twice revived residents in the throes of an overdose by administering the drug. Bringing the drug to officers around the city “will literally save lives,” the state attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, said in a statement ahead of a news conference Tuesday morning with the city’s police commissioner, William J. Bratton. “You cannot prosecute yourself out of a drug epidemic,” Schneiderman said after announcing that he will be spending $1 million to provide the NYPD with the drug, nasal injectors and the training needed to utilize the drug.  To view our videos, you need to enable JavaScript. A spokeswoman for Hospira, which makes an injectable form of the drug, said the company was ramping up production to meet additional demand after experiencing some recent back orders.
– Heroin use is spiking so dramatically that the NYPD is adding a new tool to its arsenal: an antidote. About 20,000 officers, or more than half the force, will soon start carrying the drug naloxone to treat drug users suffering an overdose, reports the Daily News. The kits cost about $60 apiece, and the money will come fittingly enough from asset seizures in drug cases, says state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. In all, his office is committing $5 million to pay for the drugs at police departments across the state, reports the New York Times. One big reason for the decision is the success of naloxone in pilot programs. Authorities say they've saved 184 lives in Suffolk County since 2012 with the drug, and on Friday alone, two men on Staten Island were revived. Officers won't have to give people shots—the new kits have easy-to-use nasal sprays instead, reports NY1. (The FDA is on board with naloxone, too.)