Heroin Statistics

• The 1999 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) estimated that there were 149,000 new heroin users in 1998 and that nearly 80 percent of them were under the age of 26.
• Over 80% of heroin users inject with a partner, yet 80% of overdose victims found by paramedics are found alone.
• Last year, there were approximately 84,000 visits to emergency rooms in the U.S. due to heroin.
• In the 25 and 49 age group, illicit drug overdose is the fourth leading cause of death, about the same number as in motor vehicle crashes.
• In 1998, 65% of the heroin seized in the United States originated in South America and another 17% came from Mexico.
• The average dependent person uses between 150 - 250 milligrams per day, divided into 3 doses.
• The average heroin addict spends between $100-$200 a day to support their heroin addiction.
• 960 people died from heroin overdoses across Australia in 1999.
• Data from the 1999 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse suggests purity is partly responsible for the 75 percent of new heroin-addicts who are snorting and smoking, not injecting, the opiate. In 1991 that number was 46 percent.
• According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network, or DAWN, heroin and morphine (which cannot be told apart by medical examiners after the body metabolizes the chemicals) accounted for 51 percent of drug deaths ruled accidental or unexpected in 1999.
• In 2000, as part of DAWN's Year-End Emergency Data report, heroin related emergency room visits increased by 15 percent from the year before.
• Current estimates suggest that nearly 600,000 people need treatment for heroin addiction.
• Between 1991 and 1996, heroin-related ED episodes more than doubled (from 35,898 to 73,846). Among youths aged 12 to 17, heroin-related episodes nearly quadrupled.
• Intravenous injection provides the greatest intensity and most rapid onset of euphoria (7 to 8 seconds), while intramuscular injection produces a relatively slow onset of euphoria (5 to 8 minutes).
• Older users (over 30) continue to be one of the largest user groups in most national data. However, the increase continues in new, young users across the country who are being lured by inexpensive, high-purity heroin that can be sniffed or smoked instead of injected.