Americans in 28 states are increasingly dying from the addictive grips of opioid pain relievers and Heroin. Now, drug overdose deaths have moved to the top cause of injury death in the United States.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report Oct. 3 2014 that analyzed the deaths of about half of the United States population during 1999-2012.
Since the initial research in 1999, overdose deaths from opioid pain relievers, such as codeine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, methadone, morphine, and oxycodone, have quadrupled. Heroin, which is an opiate synthesized from morphine, has contributed to a 50 percent increase of overdose deaths during 1999-2012.
Heroin overdose deaths are rising amongst genders, all age groups, regions and ethnic groups, excluding American Indians/ Native Americans, according to CDC.
The Northeast and South experienced heroin overdose death increases of 211.2 percent and 180.9 percent, respectively. In the Midwest and West, there were increases of 62.1 percent and 90.7 percent, respectively.
In contrast, opioid pain reliever death rates decreased in all four U.S. Census regions of the country in 2012 after an 11-year increase from 1999-2011, CDC said.
The report appropriates the increase of Heroin overdose deaths to greater availability to heroin overall and/or to certain areas of the country.