The Rising Heroin Epidemic

(Winter 2015) According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), heroin is now the largest drug threat in the country. SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, found a 51% rise between 2013 and 2014 in the number of individuals who reported using heroin within the past month. Additionally, the amount of heroin confiscated in the U.S. increased almost 100% between 2010 and 2014. Heroin may also be responsible for a jump in crime in some American cities as gangs vie to control heroin distribution on the streets.

As the availability of the drug increases, so do abuse and overdose fatalities. Of the 46,000 deaths from a drug overdose in 2013, heroin was involved in 8,000 of them.

Congress is attacking the problem with seven pieces of legislation making their way through the two houses that would help reverse the opioid abuse trend. President Obama has announced an unprecedented, multifaceted campaign to battle this morphing epidemic. Read details about it in our article, “Comprehensive Plan to Combat Rx Drug Abuse Announced.”

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