Adolescent Substance Abuse Articles

The New Faces of Heroin Addiction: Teen Use on the Rise

By Anne Watkins

Over the past few years, experts and law enforcement officials have noticed a disturbing trend: While heroin use in general has leveled off or even declined in most areas, there has been a dramatic spike in teenage heroin use.

There are many causes for this trend, which has been seen in New York, Illinois, Alabama and Oregon, but experts agree that it’s closely associated with the easy accessibility of prescription opioid painkillers as well as the decline in the adult heroin market.

For teenagers who are addicted to heroin, there are many heroin treatment options available, including methadone or suboxone detox and rehab programs. Because heroin users gain tolerance to the drug so rapidly, it’s important to recognize the problem and seek heroin treatment as early as possible. This presents unique difficulties for teenage heroin users, who may be afraid to be honest with their parents about their problem until it’s too late.

Causes of the Trend

With the recent proliferation of prescription opioid painkillers, opiate use has become far more domesticated and widespread than ever before. Because of drugs like Oxycontin and Vicodin, more people are familiar with the effects of opioid medications, which, by extension, makes heroin seem less scary and not so exotic.

Many people, including teenagers, no longer associate heroin with the horror stories of overdose and crippling addiction. Instead, they associate it more and more with those relatively safe and familiar prescription drugs. The result is that, for young people especially, prescription opioids can act as gateway drugs to heroin.

Compounding this problem is the fact that heroin is often far cheaper than its prescription counterparts. A single pill of Vicodin or Oxycontin can be anywhere from $40 to $75, while a small bag of heroin may cost less than a six pack of beer and achieve the same high. So, for anyone already addicted to prescription opioids, cheap, accessible heroin may seem like a much better deal.

While people in their late 20s, 30s or older may remember alcohol and marijuana as being the drugs of choice for teenagers, things have changed. Heroin is no longer thought of as some inaccessible drug mostly used by grown-up junkies in big cities. These days, people in their teens and early 20s are being targeted as the next big market for a drug that has long been in decline among adult populations. In some places, teens report that heroin is even more accessible than marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol.

The causes for this market shift are still being researched. However, some experts believe that the widespread effectiveness of anti-heroin measures for adults may be a large factor. While adult heroin use has dramatically declined since the 1970s, law enforcement has not been able to stop the drug from coming into the country. In fact, global heroin production has only increased in recent years. Since fewer adults are using heroin, sellers are targeting teenagers, who are less likely to have negative associations with the drug.

Dangers of Teen Heroin Use

Adding to the problem is the fact that today’s heroin is as much as 15 times as potent as the heroin of decades past. When you combine this factor with the low price and increased accessibility of the drug, teens are in grave danger. Even when it wasn’t so potent, heroin was already one of the most dangerous and addictive illicit drugs on the market.

Lack of education and misinformation is a problem. Among kids who use heroin, there are likely to be myths and false rumors about use of the drug. For example, some experts say that the rash of teenage heroin overdoses over the past few years is a result of a mistaken belief that snorting heroin is less dangerous and less addictive than injecting. Bad information about hard drugs like heroin can lead people to put their lives in danger without even knowing it.

Teenagers also tend to be more reckless with their safety than adults, which makes all of the dangers of heroin use that much more acute. Teenagers are more likely to overdose, to allow themselves to become addicted or to mix heroin with other drugs. Also, among individuals who do inject the drug, teenagers are less likely to take precautions to prevent blood borne illnesses like HIV and Hepatitis.

Finally, teenagers are less likely to seek heroin treatment, as they may be worried that they’ll get in trouble if they tell their parents. Thus, parents often do not find out about the addiction until the child overdoses, begins failing in school or gets in trouble with the law.

Heroin Use Among Suburban and Privileged Youth

A major component of the increase in teenage heroin use is a marked upswing among kids in suburban areas. For instance, in places like Suffolk County, N.Y., a suburban area outside of New York City, the number of deaths associated with heroin use have more than doubled in just the past couple of years. In nearby Nassau County, the number of people between the ages of 19 and 25 entering heroin rehab has increased nearly fivefold in the past eight years — from 59 in 2000 to 458 in 2008.

There are many possible ways to explain this trend. For one thing, suburban youth from middle-class backgrounds are much more likely to have access to gateway prescription painkillers. And while those prescription drugs tend to run out, heroin is always available for those who know where to find it. Suburban teenagers also have more money to spend, and many of them have cars, which gives them a greater amount of freedom and mobility. Suburban ennui and academic pressure may also play a role, with heroin giving teenagers an outlet for their frustrations and a temporary escape from their problems.

Whatever the cause of teenage heroin use, it is a serious problem that requires immediate attention and available heroin treatment.