Map Shows Dramatic Essex County Heroin Death Increase Since 2004

Now, heroin is everywhere.

Heroin has been blamed in more than 5,000 deaths in New Jersey since 2004, but a NJ Advance Media “heat map” graphically illustrates how the problem has quickly become an epidemic throughout the Garden State.

The map is a “heat map” (see below) showing the 5,217 heroin-related deaths occurring in New Jersey since 2004, based on the deceased’s hometown. What’s startling is that the map shows that the numbers of deaths statewide was close to zero in 2004.

Click on the embedded photo below; then located the graphic at the bottom of the new page, click the pause button and move the scroll bar manually to change the time frame. Also see the accompanying photo that shows the county-by-county increase in heroin-overdose deaths since 2011.

The animation runs from 2004 to 2014. NJ Advance Media says to use the zoom controls to look more closely at your area.

>>Related:

• No One Could Save Briana. Not From Heroin.
• 30 N.J. Towns With The Most Heroin Abuse
• Heroin Deaths In New Jersey Double Since 2011

About half of those deaths have happened in the four years. More than 600 people died of heroin-related overdoses in New Jersey in 2014 - doubling the amount of deaths from the drug since 2011, according to the state Medical Examiner’s Office.

Camden, Middlesex, Ocean and Monmouth had the highest number of overdose deaths in 2014, while Bergen, Camden, Cumberland, Gloucester, Middlesex, Monmouth and Warren had the percentage highest increases from 2013.