Heroin epidemic forces first responders to revise tactics

MARION, Ohio — Nobody called 911 when James Chavez overdosed on heroin in August 2011. Drug users knew that Marion police regularly charged people who overdosed — along with their friends — so Chavez's companions left the man facedown in a backyard. Two days later, Lt. B.J. Gruber stood over the man's corpse in that weed-choked yard and realized police in the city of 35,000 could not arrest their way out of a huge heroin problem.