Five years ago, Zack Elliott was at the forefront of an epidemic.

At 21 years old, Elliott died of a heroin overdose in May 2011. A guitar player and classical pianist, he was one of 19 people in Fulton County to die from the drug that year.

Since then, the numbers have only risen, and there were more heroin-related deaths in Fulton in 2015 than anywhere else in the state — last year, 104 people died in Fulton from using the opiates heroin or fentanyl.

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. (center) is flanked by GOP whip Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. (left) and Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, as Thune speak to reporters at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, July 1, 2025. Earlier Tuesday, the Senate passed the budget reconciliation package of President Donald Trump's signature bill of big tax breaks and spending cuts. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

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