Actor's death comes amid rise in heroin use

The apparent heroin overdose death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman comes amid a sharp rise in trafficking of the illegal narcotic across the US-Mexico border in recent years and growing abuse of the drug nationwide, federal officials said on Monday.

The increasing levels of US heroin use, which has reached epidemic proportions during the past five years, stems from a corresponding spike in abuse of prescription opiate-based painkillers, such as oxycodone, Drug Enforcement Administration officials said.

Many individuals who start out abusing oxycodone eventually turn to heroin as they build up a tolerance to the pain pills and find that they can buy heroin far more cheaply than prescription medications on the black market, the officials said.