Heroin addiction often begins in the medicine cabinet, and according to studies from the Centers for Disease Control, people who start using opiates in pill form are 40 times more likely to struggle with heroin addiction later on. In many cases, it begins innocently enough. Someone is prescribed pain medication following an injury, an accident, or after a routine surgery. And with the doctor’s blessing, there’s a feeling of safety.

There has been quite a bit of debate surrounding whether powerful painkillers are being prescribed too liberally in the first place. No matter which side someone falls on, however, there are a few rules of thumb: Painkillers are meant to be used temporarily only,  the recommended dosage should never be exceeded, and once the pain has subsided there should be no further refills.

Addiction to prescription drugs is increasingly common, but because they are expensive and require a follow-up doctor’s appointment, heroin, which is cheaper and widely available, becomes an alternative for many who were adamant they would never use illegal drugs. Highly addictive and dangerous, heroin can lead to slow and shallow breathing, cause users to slip into a coma, suffer permanent brain damage, or even die.

• On the heels of many states reporting drops in overdose deaths, the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the opioid epidemic. Suspected overdoses increased by 42% in May 2020 compared with a year earlier.
• A recent study shows that nearly twice as many people in the United States used heroin in 2018 than in 2002.
• Heroin injections increased from 0.09% in 2002 to 0.17% in 2018.
• Overdose deaths involving heroin have increased by nearly five times since 2010 (from 3,036 in 2010 to 14,996 in 2018).
• The opioid mortality rate contributed to three straight years of decline in life expectancy in the United States between 2015 and 2017. The last time comparable statistics were reported was in the 1960s.
• The vast majority of those who overdose on opioids are non-Hispanic white Americans, who made up more than 75% of the annual total in 2018. Black Americans and Hispanic Americans accounted for about 13 and 9% of cases, respectively.