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“In 2014, the most current year for which we have data, more than 47,000 Americans or approximately 129 people each day died from a drug overdose. Of the overdose deaths in 2014, 22 percent involved heroin,” Kemp Chester, associate director for the National Heroin Coordination Group within the Office of National Drug Control Policy, told the committee during a hearing titled, “Cartels and the U.S. Heroin Epidemic: Combating Drug Violence and Public Health Crisis.”
“The threat posed by heroin has continued to grow dramatically over the past several years, and since 2007, deaths involving heroin have risen 340 percent--from 2,402 in 2007 to 10,574 in 2014. Heroin use is spreading to suburban and rural communities and is growing among most socio-economic classes, age groups and races,” he told the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women's Issues.
Heroin packets, a syringe and spoon
Mexico is the primary supplier of heroin to the U.S. “with Mexican drug traffickers cultivating opium poppy, producing heroin, and smuggling the finished product into the United States,” Chester said. “Poppy cultivation in Mexico has increased substantially in recent years, rising from 17,000 hectares in 2014 to 28,000 hectares in 2015, which could yield potential production of 70 metric tons of pure heroin,” he said. Chester warned that the heroin epidemic is made worse by the “reemergence of illicit fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid more potent than heroin.”
“Illicit fentanyl is sometimes mixed with powder heroin to increase its effects or mixed with dilutants and sold as synthetic heroin. Increasingly fentanyl is being pressed into pill form and sold as counterfeit prescription opioid pills,” Chester said. “The majority of the elicit fentanyl in the U.S. is clandestinely produced in Mexico or in China. Fentanyl is extremely dangerous and deadly.” According to Chester, “In 2014, there were more than 5,544 drug overdose deaths involving synthetic narcotics other than methadone – a category that includes fentanyl. This number has more than doubled from two years earlier.”
Heroin Deaths Up 340% Since 2007
“There is no greater priority than keeping America safe from the threat of terrorism,” Siberell told the committee at a hearing on “Protecting America from the Threat of ISIS.” In his written statement and spoken testimony, Siberell cited the importance of border security in foreign nations to stopping the flow of terrorists. “When terrorists attempt to cross an international border, they open themselves up to the risk of apprehension,” Siberell said in his written statement. “There is no excuse for governments to not enforce effective border controls; many of our partners are attuned to this challenge and are eager for U.S. advice and engagement to improve their own systems.”
Siberell’s statement said the United States and its allies had reduced ISIL’s territory in the Middle East, but then cited “porous borders” as one factor giving ISIL an ongoing opportunity to “terrorize civilians.” “The international community has made progress in degrading terrorist safe havens,” Siberell said. “In particular, the U.S.-led collation to counter ISIL has made significant strides in reducing ISIL’s control of territory in Iraq and Syria, as well as the finances and foreign terrorist fighters available to it.” “At the same time,” Siberell said in his statement, “continued instability in key regions of the world, along with weak or non-existent governance, sectarian conflict, porous borders, and widespread online presence provide terrorist groups like ISIL the opportunity to expand their influence, terrorize civilians, attract and mobilize new recruits, and threaten partner countries.”
The acting counterterrorism coordinator said in his statement that the United States was working to help other governments develop “augmented border security” to stop the flow of foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs). “We are working with our partners to put in place the fundamental reforms necessary to address this threat, which include increased information sharing, augmented border security, and strengthened legal regimes,” the statement said. The statement said a decline in foreign terrorist fighters moving into Syria and Iraq was partly the result of increased efforts at border security. “We attribute the reduction in FTF flows to a range of factors, including military gains by the Counter-ISIL Coalition and proactive steps by governments to strengthen and enforce border security, counter-facilitation and counter-recruitment efforts.”
The statement particularly pointed to Turkey’s increased border security. “Turkey, a critical geographic chokepoint in the flow of FTFs to and from Syria and Iraq has also increased detentions, arrests, and prosecution of suspected FTFs, and has taken important steps to improve the security of its border.”
The statement noted that the U.S. is working with some governments in Africa to improve their border security. “For example,” the statement said, “we are training law enforcement from Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria on skills for conducting border security operations and preventing and responding to terrorist attacks, especially attacks involving improvised explosive devices.”
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After months of wrangling, the Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday, 92-2, to pass the bill that has also been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives. The measure aims to help communities develop treatment and overdose programs at a time when fewer than half the estimated 2.2 million Americans who need help for opioid abuse are receiving it, according to the U.S. Centers for Human and Health Services. The White House said in a statement the bill "falls far short" of the necessary funding, but Obama would sign it "because some action is better than none."
Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, a leading proponent of the legislation, said that it marked "the first time that we’ve treated addiction like the disease that it is, which will help put an end to the stigma that has surrounded addiction for too long." While its passage marked a rare bipartisan effort in this election year, Democrats complained that it does not provide enough resources to effectively address the drug problem. "This bill is like a Hollywood movie set - something that appears real on the surface but has no substance and no life behind its facade," said Senator Charles Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Senate Democrat.
U.S. President Barack Obama participates in a National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta, Georgia
U.S. deaths from drug overdoses hit a record high in 2014, propelled by abuse of prescription painkillers and heroin, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 28,000 people died from opioid overdose in 2014. At least half, HHS said, of those deaths involved a prescription opioid. Among the common prescription drugs are oxycodone, hydrocodone, and fentanyl that are used for pain treatment. Heroin-related deaths have also increased sharply, more than tripling since 2010. In 2014, more than 10,500 people died from heroin, the agency said. The bill authorizes $181 million a year for new programs it creates.
Democrats said that with disagreements in Congress over next year's funding for HHS, it was uncertain whether the money contained in the bipartisan bill actually would be delivered. They called on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, to back up this legislation with $600 million in immediate emergency funds. Obama has requested $920 million for opioid treatment programs over two years. The bill, if enacted into law, also would provide new training for emergency personnel in administering drugs to reverse opioid overdoses and help communities purchase those drugs.
Obama to sign bill to battle heroin addiction
The newspaper said that all 26 heroin overdose patients were revived with naloxone, but in some cases, it took more than one dose of naloxone to revive them becauses the heroin was cut with something very strong. It's not yet clear what that other drug was, but in many cases, heroin is cut with the opioid fentanyl or even a sedative used on elephants. Most of Monday's 26 overdoses happened in the same area in a six-hour stretch beginning at 3:30 p.m.
Heroin is cheaper, purer, and more dangerous than ever, and it's abused by a growing number of Americans.
The local EMS director urged residents who have heroin to "please see what is going on and don't use it. It could be your last time." The federal Drug Enforcement Administration says the threat posed by heroin in the United States is serious and has increased since 2007. "Heroin is available in larger quantities, used by a larger number of people, and is causing an increasing number of overdose deaths," says the DEA's National Heroin Threat Assessment released in June.
In 2014, 10,574 Americans died from heroin-related overdoses, more than triple the number in 2010. Heroin is relatively cheap and it is now used by a broader group of people than it has been in the past. DEA also says the U.S. heroin market is largely controlled by Mexican traffickers.
26 Heroin Overdoses on Monday in Huntington, West Virginia
