Ground Zero

Episode 2 of Do No Harm: The Opioid Epidemic

Rural America was among the earliest and hardest hit by prescription opioid addiction and overdose deaths. The stories in this episode center primarily in Kentucky, the ground zero of the epidemic. Whole communities have been devastated. Some schools don't hold parent teacher meetings because many of the parents are either dead, in rehab, or jail. Regional health experts, local government, law enforcement, journalists, and the DEA all weigh in on the crisis.

In Vermont and New Hampshire hospitals, local law enforcement and fire departments are implementing new programs to deal with the crisis and save lives. Founded by grieving parents who lost children to heroin, two grassroots movements in Kentucky are changing laws and battling for reform so that other parents will not lose their children. And yet despite heroic efforts, people continue to die.