Off The Grid: White House Announces New Plan to Fight Heroin Epidemic

The White House’s latest game plan for fighting the high rise in heroin use: focus on treating addicts rather than putting them behind bars.

While this might not read as exactly groundbreaking -- especially since this is what Jesse Ventura has been advocating for some time -- it is a small but necessary step in the right direction.  This will help treat addiction as an illness and not a crime, as well as work towards fixing our overpopulated prison system.

According to the latest figures by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, heroin use has more than doubled among young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 in the past decade.  Additionally, more than 9 in 10 people who used heroin also used at least one other drug. The CDC also states that 45% of people who used heroin are also addicted to prescription opioid painkillers.

The “Heroin Response Strategy,” as it’s being called by the government, will allocate $2.5 million of $13.4 million in new funding to combat drug trafficking, targeting areas where the heroin epidemic is critical: New England, New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Appalachia.  The White House will work with law enforcement to increase treatment for these addicts and trace the sources of heroin trafficking.

What do you make of the White House’s new strategy?  Check out the CDC’s infographic on heroin use in the United States and be sure to sound off below.