Heroin
use at 20-year high in U.S. drug 'epidemic', U.N. says
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[June 23, 2016]
By Shadia Nasralla
VIENNA (Reuters) - A heroin "epidemic" is
gripping the United States, where cheap supply has helped push the
number of users to a 20-year high, increasing drug-related deaths, the
United Nations said on Thursday.
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According to the U.N.'s World Drug Report 2016, the number of heroin
users in the United States reached around one million in 2014,
almost three times as many as in 2003. Heroin-related deaths there
have increased five-fold since 2000.
"There is really a huge epidemic (of) heroin in the U.S.," said
Angela Me, the chief researcher for the report which was released on
Thursday.
"It is the highest definitely in the last 20 years," Me said, adding
that the trend was continuing.
The rise could be linked to U.S. legislation introduced in recent
years which makes it harder to abuse prescription opioids such as
oxicodone, a powerful painkiller that can have similar effects to
heroin, Me said.

The law meant the texture of the pills was changed to make it more
difficult to crush them and inject them into the blood stream, Me
said.
"This has caused a partial shift from the misuse of these
prescription opioids to heroin."
Another reason for the increase in the use of heroin, which in the
United States mainly comes from Mexico and Colombia, is greater
supply that has depressed prices in recent years, Me said.
The United States has also seen a spike in deaths related to
fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin and 100
times more so than morphine, according to the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
Fentanyl has been named as the drug that killed pop singer Prince
this year.
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At least 207,000 deaths globally were drug-related in 2014, with
heroin use and overdose-related deaths increasing sharply also over
the last two years, according to the Vienna-based U.N. Office on
Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
"Heroin continues to be the drug that kills the most people and this
resurgence must be addressed urgently," Yury Fedotov, the executive
director of the UNODC, said.
U.S. President Barack Obama earlier this year asked Congress for
$1.1 billion in new funding over two years to expand treatment for
users of heroin and prescription painkillers.
(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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