7 Things You Need To Know About The Heroin Epidemic

The opioid epidemic continues to worsen.

The UK Daily Mail reports that there were 52 instances of heroin overdoses in a span of 32 hours in Louisville, KY and 174 heroin overdose calls over six days in Cincinnati, OH. Consequently, Louisville will have to increase the number of their police officers by 150.

Here are seven things you need to know about the heroin epidemic.

1. The number of heroin overdose deaths in 2015 was over six times as high as it was in 2002. The National Institute on Drug Abuse has a graph showing just how much this increase was:

Clearly, the number of heroin overdose deaths has alarmingly accelerated since 2010, with no sign of it slowing down.

2. Heroin drug busts have also skyrocketed from 376 in 2010 to 790 in 2015. This is according to DrugAbuse.com, which projects that there were 548 drug busts in 2015. While that is a decline, it’s still higher than it was in 2010.

3. Most of the heroin drug busts occurred in the northeastern part of the United States. Per DrugAbuse.com, the top ten states with the highest rate of heroin busts were, from highest to lowest:

• Delaware.
• Vermont.
• New Jersey.
• Connecticut.
• Massachusetts.
• Pennsylvania.
• Arizona.
• Alaska.
• Rhode Island.
• West Virginia.

Here are further details from DrugAbuse.com:

Delaware’s problem with heroin, which has been dubbed a “deadly crisis”, has been covered by the media from almost every angle, from reports of major heroin busts (which we used in our analysis) to stories of the harms heroin causes to Delaware residents and the resulting difficulties they’ve faced in receiving treatment for their addiction to the drug. A report by DelwareOnline.com recently pointed out that there were only 95 inpatient residential treatment beds available in the whole state, which has forced some individuals in need of drug addiction treatment to travel to other states, where treatment is more readily available.25

From January to May 2016, there were 13 media reports of heroin busts in Delaware, which suggests that the total number could end up being lower than 2016’s total, or it could just be that the problem has become so bad that the media are burnt out reporting it. One hopeful bit of news in Delaware’s battle with heroin availability, and the resulting addiction it fuels, came in April 2016, when it was announced that the state could see up to $4 million in government funding over the next two years to help expand access to opioid addiction treatment.18

Other Northeastern states have similar heroin afflictions, like New Jersey, which had the third-highest rate of heroin busts in the news in the country between 2010 and 2015, over 10 times above the national average. In fact, between those years, 54 percent of all major drug busts reported by New Jersey media outlets were heroin-related, more than in any other state. Delaware was second, at 52 percent, followed by Vermont and Pennsylvania, both at 46 percent. The national average was just 14 percent.

4. However, it’s the Midwest that has the highest number of heroin deaths. According to Heroin.net, the Midwest has the highest heroin death per 100,000 residents at just below 45 per 100,000, which is right above the northeast at around 40 deaths per 100,000 residents.

“States such as Ohio, where at least 23 residents die of heroin-related causes weekly, are among the most affected by this epidemic of addiction,” notes Heroin.net. “Ohio saw nearly 1,200 overdose-related deaths in 2014 that were connected to heroin use. Indiana cities have also seen a sharp rise in the number of cases of heroin overdoses, many of which have been fatal.”

5. The heroin epidemic is one of the factors behind the rise in crime. Sean Kennedy and Parker Abt wrote in an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) post that Mexican drug cartels have become the largest drug crime syndicate in the country as a result of more affordable form of heroin that’s allowed them to increase their business. Kennedy and Abt’s research found that cities with increases in drug cartels resulted in higher crime due to fights between competing cartels as well as gangs vying for the cartels’ business.

6. There were more heroin deaths than gun deaths in 2015. The Daily Wire reported back in December that it was the first time there were ever more heroin deaths than gun deaths in a single year, as there were 12,989 heroin deaths and 12,979 gun deaths.

7. How does the heroin epidemic relate to the drug war, and how can it be solved? The Daily Wire has more on that here.

Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter @bandlersbanter.