More local people now seek treatment for heroin than alcohol

SEATTLE — Heroin use continues to be a persistent public health problem in King County with more people for the first time seeking treatment for the drug than for alcohol, a new report says.

The annual report by the University of Washington’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute shows that 132 people died of heroin overdoses in King County in 2015, down from a high of 156 in 2014.

Still, the news on heroin is not good.

“Drug deaths and substance-use disorders continue to have a serious impact across King County,” said Caleb Banta-Green, senior research scientist and the report’s lead author. “At the same time, important interventions including substance-use disorder treatment, clean-syringe distribution, and use of the opioid overdose antidote, naloxone, are all increasing.”