More Teens Now Addicted to Heroin

by AdamS on August 20, 2012

Recently, doctors and people working in treatment centers have noticed an alarming trend in the amount of teens that are coming in for treatment for heroin addiction.  Over the last 5 years there has been a large increase in the number of teens and young adults that have been treated for opiate addiction.  Most teens used to go into treatment for alcohol abuse or sometimes cocaine, but heroin was predominantly abused by older adults.  Now there are a lot more individuals in the 16-25 year old age group that are addicted to heroin. Check out https://www.thewatershed.com/treatment/individualized-programs/young-adults/ for more info on teen addiction.

Prescription Pills Lead To Heroin Abuse

Most teens and young adults that are addicted to heroin, started using prescription pain killers long before they turned to heroin.  Prescription pain killers like Percocet, Loratab, and Vicodin along with opioids like Oxycontin are very addicting and dangerous, but most people are not made aware of the dangers of these pills until it is too late and they are already addicted to them.  In places like Florida, there are very few laws that regulate these medications, which allows oxycontin to be sold and abused freely.  As soon as a person starts taking these pills, their body becomes addicted and needs more and more of the drug in order to get the same feeling.  Teens are especially at risk of becoming addicted because they are usually less aware of the potential danger that these pills present.

New Laws Crack Down on Prescription Pills

Recently, new laws have been put in place to regulate the amount of prescription drugs that doctors are allowed to prescribe and also tracks patients who are receiving them.  These new laws should help to cut down on the amount of people who are abusing pills and hopefully limit the amount of people who overdose on them every year.  However, the people that are already addicted to painkillers like oxycontin, are switching over to heroin because oxycontin has become too expensive to buy off the street.  Heroin provides a much more intense high than the pills do and is also a lot cheaper, making it extremely appealing to the teens and young adults who were already addicted to the pills.

Withdrawals

It’s extremely hard for these teens to just stop taking pain medicine, because they will feel sick from the withdrawals.  Once a person becomes addicted to opiates, they will need to continue to take the drugs in order to just feel normal.  As soon as they stop using they get violently ill and will have to go through a very painful detox process.

More teens are now starting to use heroin because prescription painkillers like oxycontin are becoming harder and harder to get.  Sometimes by creating laws to help people and save lives, the opposite is achieved.  Getting young adults to stop abusing prescription pills is great, but it seems to have come at the cost of forcing many of these people to turn to heroin to get their fix.  With the increase in teen addiction, more children will be checking into adolescent rehab this year than ever before. Go tohttps://www.thewatershed.com/resource/adolescent-drug-rehabilitation/ for more info on drug rehab for teens.

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