Heroin on the rise in our quick fix culture

60 minutes ran a report on Heroin in the Heartland - CBS News: "Federal and local authorities all over the country say it's the biggest drug epidemic today. Not methamphetamines or cocaine, but heroin. You might think of heroin as primarily an inner-city problem. But dealers, connected to Mexican drug cartels, are making huge profits by expanding to new, lucrative markets: suburbs all across the country. It's basic economics. The dealers are going where the money is and they're cultivating a new set of consumers: high school students, college athletes, teachers and professionals."

The link with easily available painkillers is astounding and scary. In a culture expecting to find a quick fix for most inconveniences, including our own health, the effects of popping a pill seem to be rippling into severe consequences.

US News: Age-adjusted rates for drug-poisoning deaths, by type of drug: United States, 2000–2013

The Heroin Epidemic, in 9 Graphs - US News: "Heroin abuse is tightly tied to prescription drug abuse. Almost half of people addicted to heroin are also addicted to painkillers. People are 40 times more likely to be addicted to heroin if they are addicted to prescription painkillers. Abuse of prescription painkillers is incredibly common — one in 20 Americans age 12 and older reported using painkillers for non-medical reasons in the past year. While it's true that heroin abuse has skyrocketed in the last years, prescription drug abuse is more common. The number of overdose deaths from prescription pain medication is larger than those of heroin and cocaine combined."

To give it some perspective, 8,257 deaths were the result of heroin overdose in 2013, versus 16,235 for prescription related. There were 43,982 deaths in total from drug overdoses, which is in the same ball park as flu, suicide and car accidents. To put that all in context, the vast majority of deaths come from diseases like heart disease and cancer, while homicide is less than half of drug related deaths.

Data from Annual Causes of Death in the United States | Drug War Facts

 

60 minutes episode