Number Of US Heroin Users Rises By 300000 Over Decade

“During 2002-2011, rates of heroin initiation were reported to be highest among males, persons aged 18-25 years, non-Hispanic whites, those with an annual household income more than $20,000, and those residing in the Northeast”, CDC said.

A new report says that 2.6 out of every 1,000 US residents 12 and older used heroin in the years 2011 to 2013. In recent years people in almost every demographic group are using the drug more: For example, heroin use has doubled among women.

Heroin use and overdose deaths are rising fast in the United States, particularly among whites and women, U.S. health authorities said Tuesday. “We need to devote the attention and the resources at all levels of government to combat this crisis that is now leading to as many deaths as from gun violence and motor vehicles accidents”. A 19-year-old girl and 34-year-old man died, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

This problem calls for a comprehensive response – one that recognizes the changing demographics of heroin use, says the CDC report, which is co-authored by Christopher Jones at the Food and Drug Administration along with colleagues from the CDC.

“Heroin use is increasing at an alarming rate in many parts of society, driven by both the prescription opioid epidemic and cheaper, more available heroin”, CDC Director Tom Frieden said.

The CDC report was based on an analysis of data from the 2002-2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, comparing trends among demographic and substance-using groups. “This practice is especially risky because it increases the risk of overdose”, CDC said.

“When I went to medical school, I had one lecture on pain”, Frieden said.

Heroin use in the United States has more than doubled since 2007.

“We’ve seen an explosion of heroin use here in Ohio”, Lander said. Many people switch to heroin because it’s cheaper, Frieden said.

Though heroin is most commonly injected, it also can be snorted.

“Heroin users are no longer inner-city minority groups but now are more likely to be younger whites living outside the large urban area”, Jane Carlisle Maxwell, a political scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote in a 2015 study published in the Journal of Addictive Diseases. As many as 8,200 people died from heroin overdoses in 2013 alone.

“Most heroin users have a history of nonmedical use of prescription opioid pain relievers, and an increase in the rate of heroin overdose deaths has occurred concurrently with an epidemic of prescription opioid overdoses”. That statistic jumped to 2.6 per 1,000 people by 2011 to 2013, according to the CDC.

But mostly, by far, they use prescription painkillers.

According to the report, individuals who abuse prescription opiates have a 40 times greater risk of abusing heroin. “We must also connect overdose victims and people struggling with prescription drug and heroin use disorders to treatment facilities and doctors that offer medication-assisted treatment”.

Last year, the Drug Enforcement Administration found a four-fold increase in heroin seizures along the southwest border since 2008, with 4,653 pounds being confiscated last year. “We can turn it around by a package of public health care and law enforcement activities”. Prescription drug monitoring programs help doctors identify potential abusers.

Officials say some physicians appear to lack an understanding about the long-term effects that prescription painkillers can have on patients.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has reported a steady increase in heroin abuse nationwide, with an estimated 669,000 American users in 2012.

Help local jurisdictions to put these effective practices to work in communities where drug abuse or dependence is common.