Excerpt from Gizmodo
Written by Bryan Menegus
For the first time ever, deaths in America due to heroin overdose outnumber gun homicides. And before you ask, no, the number of gun homicides hasn’t been dropping. Good lord.
The data, pulled from the CDC by the Washington Post, is dispiriting reminder of our nation’s worsening opium epidemic, which was started by money-hungry drug companies and continues to claim more lives year over year. Gun homicides for 2015 were estimated at 12,979; heroin killed 12,989.
Heroin only accounts for a portion of the substances being abused by opiate addicts. And as the Post points out, one of the deadliest is fentanyl, which is estimated to be between 50 and 100 times stronger than morphine.