CDC: Heroin crisis is a 'national epidemic'

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is calling the growing heroin crisis a national epidemic.

Government officials told a Senate subcommittee that the crisis destroying American communities is coming from south of the border.

“We believe that Mexico is the primary supplier of heroin in the United States and the United States is the primary customer for Mexican heroin,” said Kemp Chester, with the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The mayor of Orange County, Florida testified Mexican drug cartels are targeting her community.

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“Reality is, until our citizens understand the danger and prepare themselves to avoid this drug, we're a community at risk,” Mayor Teresa Jacobs said.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told us in an exclusive interview that cartels go after rural communities with a small law enforcement presence.

In central Florida, the area had cases of doctors, clinics and pharmacists prescribing opioid painkillers without a legitimate purpose.

“A lot of people became addicted to these prescription medications, opiates. Now it’s harder to get those medicines so what the people have done is move to heroin because it's the only place they can get an opiate on the street,” Rubio said.

Officials say much of the heroin in Canada is from southeast Asia, not Mexico, raising fears that even if they eliminate the drug south of the U.S. border other parts of the world will step in to meet the country's demand for the narcotic.

Cox Media Group