Heroin-Related Deaths Skyrocket

(Fall 2016) Heroin use in the United States is now at a 20-year high. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) found that deaths caused by heroin in the U.S. increased by 300% between 2010 and 2014. Furthermore, one million individuals admitted to using the drug in 2014 — three times the number that reported using heroin in 2007. According to the DEA’s 2016 National Heroin Threat Assessment Summary, the 425,000 people surveyed in 2014 said they used heroin in the past 30 days, and over 10,500 deaths were attributed to the drug. Added to this, mortalities caused by synthetic opioids such as fentanyl rose almost 80% from 2013 and 2014.

DEA officials report that many individuals become addicted to prescription opioid drugs and then change to heroin because it is less expensive and more readily available. The surge in heroin fatalities may be partially attributed to new and inexperienced users, but lethal drugs being cut into heroin, such as fentanyl, are also largely to blame.

Heroin’s U.S. stronghold is in the Midwest and Northeast, where it has migrated from urban areas out to both rural and suburban regions. In Ohio’s Hamilton County, the increase in drug overdose deaths is resulting in a lack of adequate storage for corpses and extended waiting periods for toxicology tests and autopsies. This, in turn, slows crime investigations and criminal proceedings. Medical examiners in Wisconsin and Connecticut have also been forced to find more storage for bodies.

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