First responders, hospitals on front lines of Arizona's heroin crisis When someone overdoses on heroin, it's a race against time for first responders and hospitals to revive them. Learn about the struggle from the perspectives of overdose survivors, paramedics and emergency room workers.

Frequent problem: Over-prescribing of painkillers commonly leads to addiction Doctors are prescribing painkillers far more frequently and experts say this addiction can lead to heroin use. Most heroin addicts admit they first abused pain pills.

Effects of heroin on the body and mind This visualization by Cronkite’s New Media Innovation Lab takes you through the way heroin works on your brain and on its ultimate outcome, including addiction and, in many cases, the ways its use can prove fatal.