in just one year more than 29,000 people lost their lives to an overdose of heroin or prescription painkillers, including oxycontin, hydrocodone and fentanyl. that s an increase of 329% since the start of this century. because this has become a national epidemic, we re beginning special coverage tonight, and we ll start with dean reynolds. he s coming around a little bit. reporter: the frightening rates of ore doses are fueled by a mix of heroin and an opioid called fentanyl, 30 to 50 times as powerful as heroin itself. there s this misperception that heroin laced with fentanyl is the better high. conversely, it causes too many deaths. reporter: one person dies every day from an overdose in chicago, where dennis wichern is with the drug enforcement agency. when they taint it with fentanyl, the impurity goes way up and that s when you get the overdoses. reporter: 25-year-old chelsea blackburn of pittsburgh, who was on heroin when she got pregnant but is now clean,
in just one year more than 29,000 people lost their lives to an overdose of heroin or prescription painkillers, including oxycontin, hydrocodone and fentanyl. that s an increase of 329% since the start of this century. because this has become a national epidemic, we re beginning special coverage tonight, and we ll start with dean reynolds. he s coming around a little bit. reporter: the frightening rates of ore doses are fueled by a mix of heroin and an opioid called fentanyl, 30 to 50 times as powerful as heroin itself. there s this misperception that heroin laced with fentanyl is the better high. conversely, it causes too many deaths. reporter: one person dies every day from an overdose in chicago, where dennis wichern is with the drug enforcement agency. when they taint it with fentanyl, the up and that s when you get the overdoses. reporter: 25-year-old chelsea blackburn of pittsburgh, who was on heroin when she got pregnant but is now clean, says the search fo
overdosed eight times and lived to tell about it seems like every time the toilet gets cleaned, someone s there to undo it. after a superior clean, apply the lysol click gel. to keep it fresh, flush, after flush, after flush. for a toilet that gets clean, then actually stays that way. lysol that. it s the second leading cancer killer in the u.s. but, it is almost entirely preventable. most colon cancers start as polyps. and screening helps finds polyps, so they can be removed, before they even turn into cancer. screening also finds this cancer early, when treatment works best so if you re over 50, take control. get screened for colorectal cancer. screening saves lives. cbs news has learned that an amtrak engineer was distracted by radio transmissions just before his speeding train jumped the tracks in philadelphia one year ago. eight people were killed and more than 200 were hurt. kransportation correspondent is van cleave is following this. national transportation safety b
i didn t take care of my kids. i lost custody. reporter: 25-year-old chelsea blackburn was using heroin last june when he found out she was pregnant again. she decided to get help from the mcgee women s hospital of university of pittsburgh medical center. which started the pregnancy recovery center in 2014. the hospital inundated with pregnant heroin addicts. 350 in 2012 alone. program director, dr. dennis english. we were seeing an increased number of patients, addicted to opiods coming here to deliver the we saw numbers increasing every year. reporter: an out patient program. women are gradually tapered off heroin with a drug, buprenorphine, satisfies the craving without a high. women take the drug at home and are tested to get testing. they receive counseling and medical care throughout their pregnancy. 130 women have been admitted to the program. and 60% have made it through. 27-year-old lindsay duggan completed the program pregnant with twins and remains clean. y
that he fears come at the expense of veterans pre grams. those worth issues that led to the firing of the charity s top two officers three weeks age now the charity s original founders want more. they re calling for the resignation of board chairman, anthony odierno as the only way to reap store public trust restore public trust in wounded warriors. the same board that eversaw these problems, who approved the budget, is the same board that is trying to fix the problem. toney is a good, honorable servant of our country. but toney was frankly asleep at the wheel. reporter: odierno appointed interim ceo. cbs news learned that odierno who works for a bank in new york is not running the daily operations of the charity in jacksonville. odierno canceled a planned meeting with melia after melia threat tuned make public phone calls he recorded with board members he says show a board in disarray. in a statement today, the board said the melias are attacking the organization to p