A recent government study has reportedly found that deaths from heroin overdose has doubled in just two years in most of the U.S., according to the website Philly.com.
The CDC looked over the 2010-2012 mortality data from 28 states to determine how the rising heroin overdose rates were conncted to prescription painkillers, according to the NY Daily News.
Although there has been a drop in prescription painkiller-related deaths from 6 to 5.6 deaths per 100,000, the Atlanta-based CDC reportedly stated that the over-prescription of painkillers has led to the recent increase in heroin deaths.
"The rapid rise in heroin overdose deaths follows nearly two decades of increasing drug overdose deaths in the United States, primarily driven by (prescription painkiller) drug overdoses," the study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly found.
In a sample of heroin users in treatment programs, 75% who started using heroin after 2000 reportedly stated they first abused prescription opiods.
Heroin-related deaths reportedly increased in both men and women, in all age groups, and in Caucasian, African-American and Hispanic people.
"It's a volatile situation," stated one of the study's authors, Dr. Len Paulozzi of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The main reason for the connection between prescription painkiller-related deaths and the increase of heroin overdoses might be that people who had been abusing painkillers moved "from high-priced pills to more affordable heroin," a spokeswoman for the U.S Drug Enforcement Administration Barbara Carreno wrote in an email.
