Final answer:
The information suggests a shift to heroin and synthetic opioids like fentanyl due to the scarcity of prescription opiates, with increased overdoses and deaths likely causing more deaths from heroin than prescription opiates in 2017.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question of whether in 2017, more people died of heroin overdose than prescription opiates is not explicitly addressed in the provided reference, but the information suggests a drastic increase in opioid-related deaths due to various factors. Following the FDA's 2013 recommendation for tighter controls on opiate prescriptions, the scarcity and increased cost of prescription pain pills led many to seek alternatives such as heroin, which was both cheaper and more accessible. The dramatic shift from prescription opioid misuse to heroin abuse, compounded by the introduction of potent synthetic opioids like fentanyl, drastically increased the rate of overdoses and deaths.
Moreover, heroin use surged as a direct consequence of opioid prescription addiction. The influx of heroin into the United States, primarily by Mexican drug cartels, made it more available and resulted in a significant number of users transitioning from prescription opioids to heroin, often due to the lower cost and higher potency. The true answer to the question lies within the specific overdose death data for 2017, which, while not provided, would likely reflect this trend of increasing heroin and synthetic opioid-related fatalities surpassing death rates from prescription opiates alone.