9781422279656

A Growing Crisis 13

well-financed drug selling operations, often referred to in the media as drug cartels . Since 2005, drug cartels in Mexico have increased the amount of heroin that they produce each year, and have also increased the purity of the drugs. As a result, the American black market has been flooded with a supply of cheap, pure heroin. Consequently, heroin became an inexpensive substitute for people who were addicted to painkillers but could no longer get prescriptions for them. At the same time, growing numbers of young people are trying heroin and becoming addicted.

Text-Dependent Questions

1. Approximately how many Americans die annually due to heroin overdos- es? 2. What synthetic opioid is credited with driving up the overdose death rate? 3. What factors affect how strongly the effects of heroin are felt by users?

Research Project

The National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does collect information on many of the more com- monly used drugs. Visit their website: www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates and find information about the number of heroin and opioid overdose deaths each year since 2002. Using this data, create a bar chart. Share the information with your class.