It's a national epidemic; from Cuyahoga County - where heroin deaths outstripped deaths from car accidents or homicides last year.
- to places like Vermont - where the governor devoted last month's entire state-of-the-state message, to heroin abuse.
- to New York, where Oscar-winning actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman was found dead last week, a needle still in his arm.
Last fall.... Several northeast Ohio institutions held strategy sessions and a summit on the epidemic. For an update, Ideastream's Rick Jackson talked with Doctor Jason Jerry - addiction specialist at the Cleveland Clinic.
The conversation began with Jackson asking about what's to be learned from the death of Hoffman.... Who had reportedly been off heroin for a couple of decades till he started using again, a few months ago.