Heroin use is rising in Wisconsin, and increased drug purity is causing a spike in overdoses, but more addicts are being saved from death by use of the opiate antidote Narcan, the Capital Times reported Oct. 22.

Groups like the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin have trained hundreds of addicts to self-administer the antidote in case of an accidental overdose, as well as training emergency-services personnel on how to use Narcan. In south-central Wisconsin alone, at least 86 overdose victims have been saved by Narcan -- the trade name of the opiate agonist naloxone -- during the past two years.

The state of Wisconsin established a Narcan pilot program in Madison in 2005 and this year began another in Milwaukee. The programs are modeled after one founded by the Chicago Recovery Alliance in 2001; that program is credited with saving the lives of about 500 overdose victims.

Heroin use in Wisconsin is rising, experts say, because it's easier for youths to get than alcohol and cheaper than Oxycontin, a prescription opiate that lead many users into addiction. Demand for naloxone has risen alongside heroin use.

"If you're not on an opiate it's like injecting water," said AIDS Resource Center trainer Jimi Reinke of Narcan.  "It's not going to alter someone.  It's not going to get you high or make you low.  It's not going to change anything about you unless you're on an opiate, and then its going to block the opiate receptors and prevent an overdose."

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