Opioid and heroin usage is a major issue all over The United States, and it’s an even bigger one in our home of York, Pennsylvania. The United States only accounts for 5% of the world’s population, yet we make up 75% of the world’s prescription drug consumers. In addition to this, Pennsylvania is the state with the third highest amount of heroin users in the country. As far as our county goes, York has the 4th highest amount of heroin related deaths. The heroin epidemic in the United States, and specifically York County was caused a multitude of reasons, such as the fact that heroin is cheaper than prescription drugs and most people who try heroin aren’t aware of the risks. Heroin is often used by people who first used prescription drugs. People will become addicted to painkillers because there isn’t much of a stigma. After all, they’re legal. Little to the users know that some of the prescription drugs they’re using are strong enough to treat a cancer …show more content…
They don’t know that every three days, a person dies of a heroin overdose. They don’t know that heroin is almost always cut with other substances, whether the substance be as harmless as sugar, or as scary as fentanyl. All they know is that it’s cheap and gives them a high like no other. Ultimately, no one thinks that heroin could ruin their life, or even end their life. If everyone was aware of the consequences, the epidemic wouldn’t be nearly as bad. Heroin is a problem that won’t go away anytime soon, but if we work, we can try to eliminate it from our community. We must try to inform everyone of the dangers of heroin so they know to avoid them. We also need to work on keeping prescription drugs in a safe place, and if they aren’t being used, we need to dispose of them as soon as possible at our local police station. To conclude, the heroin epidemic is caused by the lack of information on heroin and the price of heroin compared to prescription