It seems there has been an increase in the number of heroin users. Why?
Heroin use is indeed on the rise. Between 2002 and 2012, the number of people who abused or were dependent on heroin more than doubled, from 214,000 to 467,000 (another 202,000 had used heroin at least once in that year).
It’s a complex issue, but in large part it goes back to the misuse of prescription painkillers in recent years. These drugs became so much easier to get—legally and illegally—and many people were getting hooked on them. In recent years, the number of people abusing or dependent on painkillers rose from 1.4 to 2.1 million. Many people then found that prescription painkillers were too expensive to buy on the street, or found that their supply dried up, and turned to heroin, which is cheaper and easy to find. We’ve been left with a full-blown heroin epidemic in the U.S. Far too many people are now dying of overdoses of heroin or prescription painkillers.
