The death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman at the age of 46 has shocked many in America. However, not CDC health officials who have long warned of the increase in overdoses across the nation. Police in major cities all report increased heroin seizures and deaths related to the drug. The drugs bear names like Lady Gaga, I-95, Gucci and even Obamacare to as a marketing tool.
The epidemic, which has been a plague in the black community for decades, has reemerged in white America. It has become so bad in majority white New England states that Gov. Peter Shumlin used his entire state of the state address to speak on the issue. “The time has come for us to stop quietly averting our eyes from the growing heroin addiction in our front yards, while we fear and fight treatment facilities in our backyards.” The National Drug Threat Assessment bears out his statements regarding heroin. Trafficking and seizures of the narcotic have grown over 232 percent from 2008 to 2011 and in 2013 even higher.
The DEA news releases show heroin is being shipped to this country from Mexico in everything from baby blankets to dolls. . Using the Google search engine by typing heroin and any major city will bring up a string of recent major arrests. New York in particular, according to the New York Times is flooded with cheap heroin. Last year New York police seized over $43 million in heroin alone, that’s an estimated 20 percent of the national supply. The country is engaged on this drug currently, but in urban America addicts, black and white have been overdosing for years.
