Heroin use is rising in San Diego County to the highest rate the county has seen in 15 years.
Last year, 13 percent of male arrestees and 15 percent of female arrestees tested positive for heroin or opiates, the highest rate since the Substance Abuse (SAM) Program started tracking the numbers in this format in 2000.
These percentages are a sharp increase from the previous year, when only 5 percent of arrestees tested positive for heroin in San Diego, which was much lower than the percentages in Chicago, 25 percent, and New York, 13 percent, according to SANDAG.
Still, San Diego’s percentage in 2012 was 10 percent, which was closer to the percentages for Chicago and New York.
In terms of heroin-related deaths, the San Diego County Medical Examiner has seen heroin increasingly contribute to deaths since 2005.
Other results of the SANDAG research include the fact that the most common drug among those between 20 and 39 years old is heroin.
