Video After The Jump
Heroin use is at an all time high in the United States. The number of heroin overdose deaths rose 45% from 2006-2010, according to CNN.
"We have an explosion of heroin use in this country," said James Capra, DEA Director of Operations.
In a 2002 survey 166,000 Americans admitted they had used the drug in the last month. That number has jumped to 333,000 in 2014.
Robert Parkinson, the director of the Beachcomber Rehabilitation Center in Delray Beach, Florida told CNN things are going to get a lot worse.
"I've been here over six years, and literally this is the first year that I can remember seeing this many people coming in here with an addiction to heroin," Parkinson said. "It's not at an epidemic level yet,[but] it's going to be there. It's that bad."
Phillip Seymour Hoffman (left) and Cory Monteith
The recent heroin related deaths of celebrated actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Glee star Cory Monteith illustrates America's growing problem. Heroin doesn't discriminate. It's users stretch across all racial and economic lines.
The average age of heroin users has dropped from people in their 30's to 21-years old," according to Michael's House.
The Federal Drug Enforcement Administration's crackdown on the illegal prescription drug trade has actually led to more heroin addicts.
"On the street if it's gonna cost you $80 to get a pill. Some opiate type of pharmaceutical drug, verses $10 for a bag of heroin... That's what we see," said Capra.
Heroin primarily comes from four areas: Mexico, Southeast and Southwest Asia and South America. It can be snorted, smoked or injected by needle.
By the time it reaches the street level in the United States it's been stepped on many times, leaving users unsure of the purity of the product and what it's been cut with, increasing the risk of an accidental overdose.
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