Pain Pills to Heroin: The New Epedmic and people are dying, are you next?

The United States is in the grips of one of the worst heroin epidemics in its history, due in part to a flood of cheap doses of the drug, which can be had for as little as $4 apiece, ordered on dark corners of the Web and delivered to your front door in the suburbs. In some regions, heroin is deemed "highly available" by local police in more than three times the number of communities. There are socceer mom's that are addicted.Heroin use among teenagers is increasing at an alarming rate as experts say the drug, long considered to be prevalent only in urban areas, is infiltrating the suburbs. All across suburban America, young people are getting hooked on a drug parents never suspected they needed to fear. It is impossible to understand the heroin surge without understanding the drug's link to prescription painkillers including OxyContin, Vicodin and Percocet. The drugs are heroin's chemical sibling, all containing compounds derived from or similar to opium, one of the world's most dangerous drugs. From 1999 to 2010, the sale of opioid painkillers increased 300 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.With the reformulation of prescription opioids to make them harder to abuse and new regulations aimed at curbing prescribing the drugs, addicts are turning to heroin by the tens of thousands."People are going to go where the drugs are, and right now, the cheapest and easiest way to keep that addiction going is through heroin," said DEA spokesman Rusty Payne. Please join me and my special guest speakers Dr. Carl Glidden, E.R. Hillcrest Henryetta Medical Center in Oaklahoma, Sharon Glidden of Tiger Mountain Recovery, Maegan Glidden, clinical director of Tiger Mountain and Jessie Thomas, administrator and one in recovery, and Karen Morgan Regional Clinical Liaison with New Life Lodge from TN. as we share their experiences and how this epidemic is out of control. June 20th 9pm CT Live