In 2006, more than 26,000 lives were lost in the United States to accidental drug overdose. This is the highest number of accidental drug overdoses ever recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Accidental overdose now claims more lives each year than firearms, homicides, or HIV/AIDS.
Accidental drug overdose is currently the leading cause of injury-related death in the United States for people between the ages of 35-54 and the second leading cause of injury-related death for young people.
In 2006, 164,000 emergency room visits across the United States were heroin-related.
According to the National Survey on Drug Use & Health, the number of current (within the past-month) heroin users aged 12 and up in the United States increased from 153,000 in 2007 to 213,000 in 2008. There were 114,00 first-time heroin users aged 12 and over in 2008.
USA Statistics
"More Americans die from overdoses of legal drugs each year than from gunshot wounds"
— Gil Kerlikowske, U.S. Drug Czar, speaking to CNN on 7/9/09