“The United States has its worst heroin and opioid crisis in more than 60 years. In 2015, mostly due to the heroin and opioid painkiller epidemic, more than 52,000 deaths in the U.S. were related to drug overdoses, the highest number in U.S. history, according to the State Department’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report released Thursday.
Ambassador William Brownfield briefed reporters on the release. The Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs said that the incredible demand is domestic, but that 100 percent of all heroin, and the great majority of all synthetic drugs that are used and abused in the United States, come from other countries.
He estimates that between 90 and 94 percent of all heroin consumed in the U.S. comes from Mexico and that as little as 2-4 percent of it comes from Colombia. The remainder, around 4-6 percent, comes from Asia, mainly from Afghanistan
The U.S. has more communities, more families, more regions and towns confronting an explosive drug addiction problem related to heroin, opioids and to fentanyl and other synthetic drugs now than in the immediate post World War II era.”
Read more at: http://www.voanews.com/a/us-in-worst-heroin-opioids-crisis-in-60 years/3747278.html
Source: VOANews.com – March 2, 2017
