Recent reports that heroin use is on the rise—the U.S. Justice Department says there was a 320% increase in heroin seized along the southwest U.S. border from 2008 through 2013 (1) prompted U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to speak out about the need for a solution.
In a video released in early March, Holder called heroin overdoses an “urgent public health crisis,” and stated: “It’s clear that opiate addiction is an urgent—and growing—public health crisis. And that’s why Justice Department officials, including the (Drug Enforcement Administration), and other key federal, state, and local leaders, are fighting back aggressively.” (1)