NYPD to Carry Heroin Overdose Antidote Kits

New York City police officers will soon start carrying heroin overdose antidote kits.

With a recent spike in heroin-related deaths, the city says the kits are needed to help save lives.

"Heroin has been growing as a problem and it is now interwoven with abusive prescription opioids and other drugs," New York state attorney Eric T. Schneiderman said.

"It is something we have to fight and Naloxone is an important part of our efforts because it actually counteracts the effects of heroin. The way you die from a heroin overdose is you stop breathing. And naloxone is something that gets people breathing again," he continued.

Nearly 20,000 city cops will carry the antidote kits that contain two syringes and two inhalers of naloxone each.

Some funding for the initiative is coming from money collected from civil and criminal drug cases.