Heroin overdose deaths in the United States nearly quadrupled between 2002 and 2013, fueled by lower costs as well as increased abuse of prescription opiate painkillers, U.S. health officials said on Tuesday.
The report found that heroin use increased by 63 percent from 2002 to 2013. In 2013, roughly 517,000 people reported that they had used heroin in the last year, a 150 percent increase from 2007. As many as 8,200 people died from heroin overdoses in 2013 alone.
Such medicines, which include Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet, increase individuals’ susceptibility to heroin addiction, Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told Reuters.
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7 comments:
These numbers are directly attributed to the abusive prescribing of these pain killers by our lazy medical community that would rather write a script than actually treat a patient!
And marijuana overdose deaths remain at zero.
To 2:36
Marijuana remains a gateway drug. Most dead heroin users used weed at some point before gravitating to the faster high.
Go back to your Doritos.
1:09 You hit the nail on the head. With minimal staff and even fewer doctors you can get anything you want. It is all about making the dollar.
2:36
Anyone stupid enough to smoke weed is also stupid enough to try heroin.
Funny thing is that the average guy can tell a weed smoker by how stupid they talk.
Smoke on buddy!
Yep, I know of several instances where the kids got hooked on heroin because it the same though more intense high as pot and they could shoot heroin easier in the home than smoke pot. Dealers are selling both now. Freddie Gray was such a dealer. I know of a raid conducted last month in another county where pot and heroin were being sold by the dealers. Ironically one of the dealers was shot in the head dead several days after the search warrant was executed.
Most heroin addicts have never taken a prescription drug in their lives. It's a myth to say they became a heroin addict due to being prescribed drugs.
Gateway, schmateway. It wasn't a problem before the government made it one. Climb out of Richard Nixon's desk drawer and embrace the reality.
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