Heroin use skyrocketed by more than 80% nationwide from 2007 to 2012, with the number of heroin users rising from about 373,000 to 669,000 in 2012, according to this article, which cites data from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration presented at the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Dallas.
Physicians in the U.S. prescribe enough painkillers to medicate everyone in the country 24 hours a day for a month, and most heroin users start with prescription drugs, the article says.
Meanwhile, new data from the CDC the number of drug poisoning deaths related to heroin jumped by 45% from 2010 to 2011. But the number of people who are dying from overdosing on prescription drugs hasn’t dropped — about half of the 41,340 people who died of drug poisoning in 2011 took prescription opiates, according to this article.
