US Heroin Epidemic Takes Toll On Families

PLAINVILLE, CT - MARCH 06: Hillary Comparone, 25, holds her children Cameron Comparone, 2 1/2 years, and Lincoln, 4 1/2 months, in her bedroom on March 6, 2016 in Plainville, Connecticut while marking the first anniversary of the death of the children's father Benjamin Comparone, 27, who died of heroin overdose. The nationwide heroin epidemic has overwhelmed many small towns and suburban communities, with heroin overdose deaths quadrupling, according to the Centers of Disease Control. The victims' families, many of them facing stigma themselves, are increasingly going public to lobby for greater access to recovery programs and bring awareness of addiciton as a disease, not a moral failing. The CDC says that of first time heroin users, some 90 percent are white and 75 percent had used prescription pain killers before turning to heroin. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)