Millennials are America's Latest Heroin Victims: CDC
A new report from the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention has shown a steep increase in heroin related deaths in recent years.
According to The New York Times, heroin overdose caused 8,257 deaths in 2013 as against 3,000 killed in 2010. Unlike in 2000 when most affected were black adults aged 45 to 64, the new data shows that in 2013 whites aged 18 to 44 accounted for more than half the total number of heroin related deaths, the highest for any demographic group.
The report also showed that the Midwest reported the highest number of deaths in 2013 as against West and Northeast which registered highest rates in 2000.
Even as heroin related deaths increases, deaths from overdose of analgesics had leveled off.
"While the age-adjusted rate for drug-poisoning deaths involving opioid analgesics has leveled in recent years, the rate for deaths involving heroin has almost tripled since 2010," the report noted.
One of the reasons experts cited for the phenomenon is the improved tracking of prescription drugs.
"Heroin's cheaper and easily available, and we're seeing increases in places that traditionally haven't had much heroin use. Once people are dependent on prescription drugs, it's very rare for them to stop on their own with no treatment. If the drugs are suddenly less abusable, they will switch to something else that will alleviate withdrawal," US News & World Report quoted Kelly Dunn, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
