CAMDEN, N.J. - It's a truth addicts and health providers know well: Naloxone can reverse heroin overdoses, but it can't cure the addictions that cause them.

In a small but growing number of places, people who land in hospitals after being revived by the drug are being guided toward long-term treatment.That's largely because decision makers have heard so many stories about people being brought back from the brink - sometimes repeatedly - and then turned loose to use again.How Narcan worksThe drug, pronounced nuh-LOX-ohn but often known by the brand name Narcan, is administered via shot or nasal spray and can almost immediately revive a victim of an overdose on heroin and its painkiller relatives, known as opioids. It's widely distributed to anyone likely to encounter an overdose victim, including police, paramedics and users' families.Billie Fisher, 33, recalled a painful withdrawal a few years back in a Camden emergency room after being given naloxone.She just wanted to get high again, she said, and it seemed the hospital staff just wanted her out.Before she left, no one even talked to her about getting treatment for her addiction, she said."It was like they didn't really care," said Fisher. She acknowledged she is still using heroin and cocaine, but hasn't overdosed since the one time she was given naloxone.Who administers itPeople trained to administer naloxone - including police, medics and addicts themselves - are told to get patients to emergency rooms quickly. But that often doesn't happen.When police, paramedics and the like give the antidote, patients are much more likely to get medical help afterward.More educationNaloxone works most of the time, but national statistics aren't kept on what happens to people who are revived.Some overdose again soon afterward. Some get treatment and get clean, but limited insurance, high costs and a shortage of spots at treatment centers can be hurdles.Advocates for addicts see the war on heroin as complicated and naloxone as an essential tool. After all, it saves lives - if only for a while, when further recovery lies in the patient's hands."What's the alternative? Not to revive someone with naloxone?" said Daniel Raymond, policy director for the Harm Reduction Coalition.At a regular emergency room, a patient might have to wait several hours for such a specialist, said Leana Wen, the Baltimore health commissioner, who has also worked as an emergency room doctor."A person who has a heart attack often does have a moment when they realize, 'I need to live my life in a different way,' " Wen said. "The people with addictions have a disease that led them to have an overdose in the first place. The key is to offer that treatment."