Or alcohol. Many timm they had linns to opioid use, including heroin, which is a common substitute for people who opioids. Kcrg tv nines Iowa City Bureau chief mark carlson joins us live from iowa city. Mark, theyre calling this a new drug epidemic . Officials fight back like heroin seem to gain steam. The death of former hawkeye football star tyler sash shocked fans and former teammates. An autopsy revealed he died from mixing powerful pain medications methadone and hydrocodone. Both are forms of opiods powerful and increasingly popular prescriptionnpainkillers. Doctors nationwide wwite nearly 260 million prescriptions a year for them. Obviously they dont want to see patients in pain. With s many of the painkillers streets annually experts say millions are going unused. They then become easy targets for people looking to get high. One of the big keys about all this drug control needs to be the diversion issue of prescription medications, to find a conveeient way for people to take the