Host Intro: The Chicago Recovery Alliance works with intravenous drug users. Workers in the organization’s mobile van dispense clean syringes to addicts throughout the city and for the past few years they have also been distributing a drug designed to reverse heroin overdoses. It’s called Naloxone and it’s been used for years by paramedics and in hospital emergency rooms to save lives. The Chicago Recovery Alliance is one of a handful of agencies in the country that distributes Naloxone on the street. The idea is for a drug user to save another user’s life by injecting Naloxone whenever an overdose occurs--in a living room, in a car, in a park. Since the program started, hundreds of overdoses have been reversed by fellow users. Producer Dan Collison spoke with health workers and heroin users their experiences with Naloxone.

Host Intro: The Chicago Recovery Alliance works with intravenous drug users. Workers in the organization’s mobile van dispense clean syringes to addicts throughout the city and for the past few years they have also been distributing a drug designed to reverse heroin overdoses. It’s called Naloxone and it’s been used for years by paramedics and in hospital emergency rooms to save lives. The Chicago Recovery Alliance is one of a handful of agencies in the country that distributes Naloxone on the street. The idea is for a drug user to save another user’s life by injecting Naloxone whenever an overdose occurs--in a living room, in a car, in a park. Since the program started, hundreds of overdoses have been reversed by fellow users. Producer Dan Collison spoke with health workers and heroin users their experiences with Naloxone.