Fewer people began using heroin in 2017, amid continued overdoses and deaths

The number of people who began using heroin for the first time decreased by more than 50 percent from 2016 to 2017, according to new government data released Friday, even as deaths from opioids overall haven’t yet shown any sign of slowing.

An estimated 81,000 people started using heroin for the first time in 2017, compared to more than 170,000 people in 2016. The largest bulk of users was among adults ages 18 to 25, 46,000 of whom started using the powerful, addictive drug in 2017.