When it comes to fighting addiction, they say you have to hit bottom. For Rutland, Vt., a town of 17,000 devastated by heroin, the bottom came in September 2012.
A popular high school senior was struck and killed by a driver who was high. Local resident Joe Kraus says the tragedy galvanized the community.
"People who perhaps never would have gotten involved in a meaningful way decided it was time to get involved," he says.
And they did. City officials, police and neighborhood activists came together to create a grassroots organization called "Project VISION." It was a small group of people with big goals ā to reduce drug-related crime, improve treatment and clean up troubled neighborhoods.
[For more of this story, written by Nina Keck, go to http://www.npr.org/2016/01/30/...ombat-drug-addiction]
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