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New York Joins Multi-State Partnership To Battle Heroin Use

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y. -- New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced a multi-state coalition with Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Jersey in an effort to battle the growing problem of heroin use and the distribution of the drug. 

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a multi-state coalition to battle the use and distribution of heroin.

Photo Credit: Attorney General Eric Schneiderman

The task force, which will be called Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Heroin Task Force, will marshal the resources of top law-enforcement officers across the four states with more expected to join. 

In the last two years, over 98 percent of the large-scale heroin trafficking cases prosecuted by the New York Attorney General’s Office have involved heroin flowing between New York and either Pennsylvania, New Jersey or Massachusetts, the attorney general's office said. 

“For too long, drug organizations have tried to outmaneuver law-enforcement agencies by crossing state lines. This task force will ensure that our borders do not become our boundaries,” Schneiderman said in a statement. “By joining together, we can prevent defendants from using state borders as a shield from law-enforcement and allow us to shut down the pipelines and cut off the heroin supply.”

Reports of first-time heroin use have nearly doubled since 2006, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, with New York City and Philadelphia widely considered to be primary hubs for distribution throughout the east coast. 

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