New London — Speaking to a gathering of law enforcement officials Monday at a summit on the heroin and opiate crisis, U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said the government needs to treat the issue like a natural disaster.

Courtney said he introduced a bill on Friday seeking $600 million in the current fiscal year to fund law enforcement, prevention and treatment efforts. President Obama has proposed spending $1.1 billion on the issue, but not until 2017. Courtney said the White House is seeking $1.8 billion in emergency funding for the Zika virus, which he acknowledged is a problem, but not one that's "killing 74 people a day," like heroin and opiates.

"This is not a problem that's going to wait for the wheels of government to move forward," said Courtney.

The state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner released numbers this week indicating that the number of heroin/opiate overdose deaths in Connecticut climbed from 195 in 2012 to 444 in 2015. The increase included a drastic number of deaths resulting from heroin mixed with the opiate drug Fentanyl and from Fentanyl itself, which is sold in powder form, according to Dr. Maura DeJoseph from the medical examiner's office.

Summit participants, from the area police chiefs alarmed by the number of drug-related crimes in their communities to the mother of an addict who said she is calling about a burial plot in case her son has a deadly relapse, have seen the crisis up close.

Blumenthal, who has been holding roundtable discussions across the state as he works to shape national policy and spending on the crisis, said the federal government does not have enough people, equipment and boats to interdict the drugs that come into the country from Colombia and Central America.

"You're at the end of the pipeline," Blumenthal told the gathering.

Topics ranged from the shortage of treatment beds for newly arrested users to the need for longer-term rehabilitation programs and the new cost to communities of paying for Narcan, the overdose antidote. Waterford Police Chief Brett Mahoney said the town received its first supply of the drug through a grant, but that the medication will reach its expiration date this month. Mahoney said the town would be switching from injectable nalaxone, which costs $750 for two doses, to nasal spray, which is $40 a dose.

New London Mayor Michael Passero said his city, being at the "epicenter" of the crisis in southeastern Connecticut, has been providing a regional service. In recent weeks, with a particularly potent dose of heroin circulating through the region, the New London Fire Department has administered multiple doses of Narcan, some to people in cars.

Area police, who are now taking a unified front to enhance enforcement efforts and explore opportunities for offering treatment to addicts, often have been frustrated to see the same players returning to the drug trade after an arrest.

"What we see in law enforcement are the same people coming back again and again," said Groton Town Police Chief Louis J. Fusaro Jr. "We'd like to see some tougher sentences for dealers."

Supervisory Assistant State's Attorney Michael E. Kennedy said prosecutors try to isolate dealers from the low-level users, who get the benefit of treatment programs. Bail Commissioner Timothy Gilman, whose office works with defendants from the time of arrest until their cases are resolved, said families are relieved when people get arrested, because they think that means they'll get into treatment.

"We have a number of inpatient beds through (the court system), but the wait list for all of them is two to three months," Gilman said.

The department (DMHAS) reserves 300 of its 1,200 state-funded residential treatment beds for those who are ordered into treatment through the court system.

The heroin summit will resume at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, where Michael Botticelli, director of national drug control policy, is expected to attend.

k.florin@theday.com