GRANT COUNTY, Ind. -- Marion, Indiana has a population of 30,000 people. And while it is home to the largest evangelical university in the Midwest, it has been ravaged by heroin. Overdose cases and deaths have doubled in the past year.
"We're seeing across the board age wise. So, we're not seeing it's one age or the other which means we need to educate our entire public and that's what we hope to do in the next year," Ann Vermillion with Marion General Hospital said.
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Marion's General Hospital also has seen an epidemic like increase in the number of HIV and Hepatitis C cases because addicts are sharing needles. And for now, in Marion and across Indiana, resources and rehab facilities have not kept pace with people needing treatment.
Lacie Giboney, a recovering heroin addict and now a licensed therapist, has spent her ten years of sobriety talking to Indiana communities, teens and adults alike, about the evils of heroin and its terrible grip on humankind.
"I think we're definitely worse. The epidemic continues to rise and we're losing kids at startling rates, young adults. It's definitely become more of a problem," she said.
Heroin, a deadly epidemic with a stranglehold on cities big and small.
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