Heroin deaths have surged over the last five years, more than tripling between 2010 and 2014, according to an alarming report this week on America’s drug epidemic.
Fatalities involving heroin jumped from 3,036 in 2010 to 10,574 in 2014, at a rate faster than other illegal drugs, says the report by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Fatalities due to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, a fast-acting narcotic often disguised as prescription pills, dramatically increased by 79 percent in only one year, from 2013 to 2014. The drugs are allegedly responsible for the deaths of 19 people in Florida and California in the first quarter of this year.
“We tend to overuse words such as ‘unprecedented’ and ‘horrific,’ but the death and destruction connected to heroin and opioids is indeed unprecedented and horrific,” said DEA Acting Administrator Chuck Rosenberg, in a statement.
“The problem is enormous and growing, and all of our citizens need to wake up to these facts,” he added.
The Northeast and Midwest have been hardest hit by the heroin epidemic, the report says. Overdose deaths are more common in suburban areas and outlying counties surrounding cities.
Law enforcement agencies reported seizing larger than usual quantities of heroin in cities across the country. There was an 80 percent increase in heroin seizures over the past five years, from 3,733 kilograms (about 8,230 pounds) in 2011 to 6,722 kilograms (about 14,819 pounds) in 2015, according to the National Seizure System.
The availability of heroin is also increasing nationwide. Today’s heroin is cheaper, higher in purity, and in many cases easier to obtain than illegal controlled prescription drugs (CPDs).
