Cuyahoga County to launch heroin initiative; Four dead this year in Portage County from overdoses

CLEVELAND - Cuyahoga County will announce an initiative Wednesday morning to deal with an increasing number of heroin-related deaths.

Nationwide, 365,000 deaths occur each year from complications or overdoses of prescription drugs and opiates like heroin. The numbers are increasing in northeast Ohio as well, with four confirmed heroin overdoses this year in Portage County alone.

"We're not winning the war on drugs," said Portage County Sheriff David Doak.

Meanwhile, at the Women's Recovery Center in Cleveland, Sarah has been free of heroin for 117 days after using for two months. She said she's had four close friends who've died of drug overdoses.

"It's probably one of the scariest things to hear about so many of my friends and friends of friends and just people I've met that are no longer with us from pills or now heroin," she said.

"It's getting more and more common with younger and younger people and it's getting really scary."

Stay with newsnet5.com for the latest on the Cuyahoga County heroin initiative.  And, you can find out more about the Women's Recovery Center at w ww.womensctr.org