/ Modified oct 9, 2015 4:54 p.m.

AZ WEEK: Drug Addiction and Heroin 'Pandemic' in Arizona

More than 2,000 people are being treated for opiate addiction in Pima County alone.

Thousands of people seek treatment for opiate addiction in Pima County every day. One of them is Reuven Shorr.

“If I wasn’t on methadone, we wouldn’t be talking right now,” Shorr said. “I don’t think I’d be alive.”

Arizona Week Friday looks at Arizona’s role in the drug trade from treating addiction to removing narcotics from the street.

On the program:

  • In Pima County, more than 2,000 people receive treatment for addiction to opiates. Host Lorraine Rivera interviews physician Lenn Ditmanson from COPE Community Services about opiates’ origin and why addiction exists today.

  • Reuven Shorr says trying oxycodone at 25 started his addiction to opiates. He talks about his journey out of addiction and what he lost along the way.

  • The SOBER Project, known as fellowship for addicts, has been in Tucson for almost 20 years. Pastor Larry Munguia discusses the project’s goal. “It’s not about religion. It’s not about corporately thinking the same way,” Munguia said. “This is about how God speaks to you through the word and having somebody helping guide you through that process.”

  • Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Doug Coleman takes Arizona Week to a secure facility that stores drug evidence seized in Arizona.

  • Ditmanson, of COPE, breaks down what it takes to treat opiate addiction and why doctors are part of the problem.

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