In rural Pennsylvania heroin is easier and cheaper for youth to get than alcohol, report says

In rural Pennsylvania it's easier and cheaper for young people to get heroin than alcohol, says a bipartisan report released Tuesday by The Center for Rural Pennsylvania. State Senator Gene Yaw, the Republican chairman of the center, "said a small packet of heroin costs between $5 and $10 and delivers a high lasting four to five hours," David Dekok reports for Reuters.

The report said Cambria County in central Pennsylvania has a heroin overdose death rate equal to that of Philadelphia, at 22.6 deaths per 100,000 population, Dekok writes. Philadelphia has a population of 1.5 million, compared to 141,000 in Cambria County.

About 80 percent of the state's heroin users first became addicted to OxyContin or Vicodin, says the report, David Wenner reports for PennLive. "It said nearly 3,000 Pennsylvania residents have died over the past five years because of abuse of heroin or other opioids." The overdose rate has increased 470 percent over the past two decades, from 2.7 deaths per every thousand people to 15.4 deaths, says the report. (The Center for Rural Pennsylvania graphic)