There has been a major increase in the amount of people overdosing on drugs in New York City, and the city is not alone in what many are calling an epidemic that's destroying families and communities. NY1's Dean Meminger filed the following report.

The NYPD says there's been a 50 percent jump in drug overdose deaths in the city so far this year. A public health crisis in other parts of the country, and now in New York.

"People are overdosing at probably three times the rate you had back in the crack cocaine epidemic," said Chuck Wexler of the Police Executive Research Forum.

Law enforcement, health and education officials from around the nation gathered at NYPD headquarters Thursday. They discussed the problem and possible solutions, especially from opioids like heroin and fentaynl, a synthetic relative that can be 50 times more powerful.

"Pregnant women overdosing," said Dermot Shea, NYPD chief of crime control strategies. "Of couples, one overdoses and is saved, and then an hour later, we're responding back to the same apartment." 

Officials say nationwide, 33,000 people died from drug overdoes last year, more than 1,300 of them in New York. Most overdoses involved people initially addicted to prescription painkillers who turned to the much cheaper and more accessible heroin. And in the last couple of years, dealers have laced the heroin with fentanyl.

Police from around the country say they have seen teenagers, as well as people nearly 100 years old, die from drug overdoses.

Towns and cities that border New York admit they must partner more closely with the NYPD to find out what trends and drugs could be coming their way.

"We had Super 8 as a product in Brooklyn. We wouldn't know that up in New Rochelle if we came across Super 8," said New Rochelle Police Commissioner Patrick Carroll.

About 13,000 NYPD officers carry Narcan or Naloxone to revive overdose victims. The goal is to have every officer carry Narcan in the near future. 

Officials are urging families to buy the life-saving drug as well.

"If you are aware of the addiction that's in your family or among your friends, that someone, like we have a designated driver, someone is saying, 'I'm going to carrying Naloxone tonight,'" said Susan Herman, the NYPD's deputy commissioner of collaborative policing.

A scary thought, but officials say that's where the city and country are now when it comes to addiction.