Heroin Addiction in the US: How bad is it?

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President Barack Obama is proposing $1.1 billion in the 2017 budget to address the prescription opioid abuse and heroin use epidemic,  according to the summary of a recent blog from the White House.

Opioid abuse and heroin use is a new trend where more than 28,600 lives would be lost annually as it was in 2014. There is also an exponential increase in the number of heroin-related deaths in America as it has been in the period between 2002 and 2013 when the numbers almost quadrupled, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The budget allocation aims to ensure that those who would be in need of treatment can have access to it, and the expansion of this access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder and substance use treatment providers.

According to a report from the Huffington Post, people from across the country are already aware of the issue. In one survey, close to half of the of the respondents believe that heroin use is a very serious national problem, and almost 9 in every 10 Americans believe that it is at least a somewhat serious problem. The respondents also look at the heroine addiction problem as worrisome as gun violence.

The issue is also deemed as a wide-scale problem with more than 1 in 3 Americans claiming that they know someone addicted to heroin or another opiate. About 50 percent of the respondents also think that the issue is much a concern in their place as it is elsewhere in the country.

On the question of where to point fingers to with regard to the cause of addiction and use, 28 percent says users were to be blamed themselves, 11 percent claimed it's the fault of the drug dealers, while 5 percent was blaming the government and law enforcement officials.

"This proposal will not only expand access to help people start treatment, but help them successfully complete it and sustain their recovery," says the White House. "It will fund education, prevention, drug monitoring programs, and law enforcement efforts to keep illegal drugs out of our communities."