The death of Philip Seymour Hoffman is a tragedy for the film and arts community, but on a larger scale, it has highlighted the comeback of heroin that feared to be quickly spreading across the country.

The sudden death of the Oscar winning actor at the age of 46 due to an alleged drug overdose has drawn more attention to the class A drug gaining popularity in the recent years but once seemed to be decreasing in use.

The famed actor, who left behind a long-time partner and three kids was found dead on his bathroom floor with a syringe stuck in his arm. While the autopsy has not been released, 70 bags of heroin and prescription drugs were found in the apartment; about 50 were said to be heroin.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the number of heroin users in the last five years has doubled from 373,000 in 2007 to 669,000 by 2012. Aside from this, the number who abused the substance or grew dependent on the drug more than doubled from 214,000 in 2002 to a whopping 467,000 by 2012.

In 2011 alone, at least 178,000 Americans used heroin for the first time, according to the latest available estimate of the Administration.

Joseph Moses, spokesman of the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) told the AFP, "Heroin is a growing epidemic."

He continues on and said in the US, deaths due to heroin overdose has risen 45 percent from 2006 to 2010 and the amount of heroin seized each year on the Mexican border was up nearly four times from 2008 to 2012, reports Huffington Post.

Seymour has struggled with drugs and alcohol all throughout his career, and after over two decades of being sober, voluntarily went into rehab in an attempt to nip his relapse back in May 2013.

Philip Seymour Hoffman has now joined other actors, namely Whitney Houston, River Phoenix, Cory Monteith and Heath Ledger, who have also passed due to opioids, which includes drugs like heroin and prescription drugs like Vicodin.