audio, stills, text and or video: Go to zReportage.com to see more - Once associated with urban poverty, heroin is more popular - and deadly - than ever. More than 1,200 people in Massachusetts died from overdoses of heroin or prescription opioids last year. That is double the number who died four years ago, four times the number who died in car crashes. The picture is just as ugly in the postcard towns of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. The killer drug once associated with urban poverty is more popular in the US than ever before - especially among white people, women and the middle class, especially in the suburbs and the country, especially in the Midwest and northeast. A weeklong tour of the Massachusetts wreckage revealed glimmers of hope: families starting to speak out without shame, once-oblivious political and medical leaders innovating to save lives, a small-town police chief putting addicts in treatment rather than handcuffs. But the body count is staggering and rising. Haverhill, an unremarkable town of 60,000, had three overdose deaths in 2011, more than 20 deaths in 2014. In most of the state, this year will be just as bad as last. Thousands of families, many of them prosperous, have been left to puzzle out how they ended up here. Heroin.
© Carlos Osorio/The Toronto Star/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Aug. 31, 2015 - Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S. - COLLETTE D'AMICO is hugged by MAUREEN CAVANAGH before the start of the vigil. Collette's son Derek died of an overdose. He was 23. The vigil was for people who had died of an overdose. The bags had messages written on them from friends and family members. They were held down with sand and a single glow stick was dropped inside. The rally was held on National Overdose Awareness Day.
© Carlos Osorio/The Toronto Star/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Aug. 31, 2015 - Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S. - People hold candles during the vigil for people who had died of an overdose. The rally was held on National Overdose Awareness Day.
© Carlos Osorio/The Toronto Star/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Aug. 31, 2015 - Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S. - The Western Harbor in Gloucester Massachusetts served as a backdrop for a candle light vigil for people who had died of an overdose. The bags had messages written on them from friends and family members. They were held down with sand and a single glow stick was dropped inside. The rally was held on National Overdose Awareness Day.
© Carlos Osorio/The Toronto Star/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Aug. 31, 2015 - Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. - KIMBERLY KRAWCZYK wears a t-shirt of the people she has lost to drugs during a rally in Boston Common on National Overdose Awareness Day. On the shirt are (l-r) her father Walter, her mother Valaurie and her brother Michael who died on this day in 2012. The Rally was calling for an end to the country's problem of addiction and overdose deaths attributed to opioids and other prescription drugs.
© Carlos Osorio/The Toronto Star/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Sept. 1, 2015 - Bourne, Massachusetts, U.S. - RYAN TRIPP, who lost his son, Ryan, on April 12, 2015, holds his portrait at Monument Beach.
© Carlos Osorio/The Toronto Star/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Aug. 31, 2015 - Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S. - People listen to speeches during the vigil for people who had died of an overdose. The rally was held on National Overdose Awareness Day.
© Carlos Osorio/The Toronto Star/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Aug. 31, 2015 - Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S. - MEAGHAN GALLANT (left) and CHRIS MITCHELL during the vigil for people who had died of an overdose. Meaghan lost her fiance Nathan. The rally was held on National Overdose Awareness Day.
© Carlos Osorio/The Toronto Star/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Sept. 3, 2015 - Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S. - Police Chief LEONARD CAMPANELLO photographed at the entrance of the Gloucester Police Headquarters. The Gloucester police force has been running an experiment that appears unprecedented anywhere in America. Its architect is a former undercover drug cop. Any opiate addict who wanted to get clean would be invited to show up at headquarters. The Gloucester PD would work the phones to get them into treatment - 'not in hours or days, but on the spot.' A volunteer 'angel' would offer them companionship. Even if they brought drugs with them, they would not be charged.
© Carlos Osorio/The Toronto Star/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Sept. 2, 2015 - Billerica, Massachusetts, U.S. - BILLY PFAFF, a formerly homeless 46-year-old, started a Facebook group called 'Heroin Is Killing My Town' after his best friend overdosed last year. More than 30,000 people subscribe. With no training, the man best known as 'Billy Inkslinger' has become a sought-after counsellor - a testament both to the force of his personality and the holes in the formal system.
© Carlos Osorio/The Toronto Star/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Sept. 1, 2015 - Plymouth, Massachusetts, U.S. - Plymouth Fire Chief EDWARD BRADLEY shows a packet of Narcan he carries in his pocket in front of Plymouth Harbor along Water Street. Plymouth, the quaint seaside tourist town where the Pilgrims settled, calls itself 'America's hometown.' Its fire department used to get 40 to 60 overdose calls per year. There were 313 in 2014. This year has been worse. Every fire crew has used Narcan (a nasal spray that reverses heroin overdoses) at least once.
© Carlos Osorio/The Toronto Star/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Sept. 2, 2015 - Lowell, Massachusetts, U.S. - On the way out Billy stops and points out needles and mini bottles of alcohol on the ground. BILLY PFAFF was looking for homeless people who live underneath a train bridge to see if they needed help and provide them with information on how to get clean. The men and one woman declined Billy's help and asked him to leave their space.
© Carlos Osorio/The Toronto Star/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Sept. 2, 2015 - Lowell, Massachusetts, U.S. - On the way out Billy stops and points out needles and mini bottles of alcohol on the ground. BILLY PFAFF was looking for homeless people who live underneath a train bridge to see if they needed help and provide them with information on how to get clean.
© Carlos Osorio/The Toronto Star/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Aug. 31, 2015 - Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. - BILLY PFAFF speaks with people at the rally in Boston Common. The Rally was calling for an end to the country's problem of addiction and overdose deaths attributed to opioids and other prescription drugs. Pfaff, a formerly homeless 46-year-old, started a Facebook group called 'Heroin Is Killing My Town' after his best friend overdosed last year. More than 30,000 people subscribe. With no training, the man best known as 'Billy Inkslinger' has become a sought-after counsellor - a testament both to the force of his personality and the holes in the formal system.
© Carlos Osorio/The Toronto Star/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Aug. 31, 2015 - Billerica, Massachusetts, U.S. - BILLY PFAFF speaks on the phone trying to help a mother with her daughter who has a heroin addiction. Billy fields many calls a day from parents or addicts who need his help. Pfaff, a formerly homeless 46-year-old, started a Facebook group called 'Heroin Is Killing My Town' after his best friend overdosed last year. More than 30,000 people subscribe. With no training, the man best known as 'Billy Inkslinger' has become a sought-after counsellor - a testament both to the force of his personality and the holes in the formal system.
© Carlos Osorio/The Toronto Star/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press
Aug. 31, 2015 - Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S. - A man and a woman look out towards the Western Harbor. The Western Harbor served as a backdrop for a candle light vigil for people who had died of an overdose. The rally was held on National Overdose Awareness Day.
© Carlos Osorio/The Toronto Star/zReportage.com via ZUMA Press