Heroin deaths up as price drops

– The number of deadly heroin overdoses in the US quadrupled from 2010 to 2015, a federal agency said yesterday, as the price of the drug dropped and its potency increased.

There were 12 989 overdose deaths involving heroin in 2015, according to the National Centre for Health Statistics, compared with 3 036 such fatalities five years earlier.

In 2010, heroin was involved in 8% of US drug overdose deaths, a study by the Atlanta-based centre said. By 2015, that proportion had jumped to 25%.

Due to its falling price, heroin can cost as little as one-tenth that of prescription pills, said Rich Hamburg, executive vice-president of Trust for America’s Health. –