For the first time in New Orleans history, the number of people killed by heroin overdose is on pace to exceed those killed by murder.
Parents have watched heroin tear their families apart, and those in the medical community continue to see the death toll rise.
The addiction pays no attention to race, gender or financial status.
Mike Perlstein spent months investigating an alarming jump in heroin use in this four-part series, "The New Face of Heroin."
One positive development stemming from today's heroin crisis is a better understanding of how to address it.
There has been a recent push for more counseling and treatment as well as ways to make the life-saving antidote Naloxone more readily available.
This way of looking at heroin, as a medical problem, rather than just a criminal problem is bringing more users out in the open.
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