It is not just heroin, and the problem is increasingly worse in the U.S. than in most other advanced countries.

In the U.S., between 1999 and 2013, the death rate rose among middle aged white Americans, while it declined rather dramatically elsewhere in the developed world. These people are dying what are is coming to be called "deaths of despair", from suicide, alcohol and drug overdoses. And it is much worse among whites than blacks in that age group.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/23/health/deaths-despair-mortality-opioids-economy-study/

An article in the Economist (3/25/2017) suggests that this trend is partly due to the failure of the U.S. to implement universal health care. 

After all, the U.S. is the only advanced country where you lose first your job, then your health care, and then your home, due to illness and medical expenses.

Stephen J. Remington