Heroin Use with Youths on the Rise - Essay Example

Heroin Use with Youths on the Rise: Why Heroin is Becoming a Drug of Choice With Today’sYouth For the past several years, drug abuse experts, law enforcements officials, parents, and others who work with young people have been alarmed by the dramatic increase in use of heroin. Although there are many studies that have shown a decrease in the use of the drug in many areas of the country others, including New York, Alabama and many others have seen a spike in abuse. Most experts agree that there are several factors that account for this new trend. Among these is the lower cost of the drug. In fact, according to New York authorities, a small bag of heroin is cheaper than a six-pack of beer and surprisingly can be up to 15 times purer than the drug was generally available in the 1970s. Further, many young people believe that the purer strain of heroin available today makes the drug better for snorting instead of intravenous use, which makes it less likely to become addicting, which is totally false. (Allen 12) Despite this, areas of New York, such as Nassau County report 46 deaths directly attributed to heroin overdose, a shocking increase of 75 percent over the previous year. Another area that Student Name 2 reports a serious increase in the overdose rate for heroin is Will County in Ill., which counts 23 young victims this year as opposed to 16 for 2009. In Jefferson County, Alabama, heroin overdose deaths rose from 6 in 2007 to 18 in 2008, a startling three-fold increase. What is Causing the Trend? Most experts agree that there are many causes for this alarming trend. These trends are most noticeable in states such as New York, Illinois, Alabama, and Oregon, but the cause is thought to be the same in virtually all states: the relatively inexpensive price of heroin, as well as the decline that has been seen in recent years in the adult market for prescription opioid painkillers. As a result of this void, teenage users and potential users have been targeted by purveyors of the drugs. (Baker 16) Another reason for this disturbing trend is the nature of the drug itself. Heroin is, by its nature, easier to gain a tolerance for. As a result, users can find themselves addicted to the drug in a much shorter period of time compared to other drugs. This also causes users to become addicted to the drug while being much less aware of the consequences. This also makes these teenage users more afraid to tell their parents or other officials until the addiction is much further along than is usually the case with other drugs. Also, as stated above, the greater availability of prescription opioid painkillers affects not only the perception of heroin to teen users, but results in greater domestication of the drug as well as a perception of the drug as “less scary” then it once was, i.e., heroin is just another drug just like mom and dad take. Student Name 3 This feeling is further crystallized by the perception that heroin is not in the same league as the same drug of the 70s, which caused the horror stories of overdoses and addictions of the past. By contrast, teenage users tend to add heroin to the list of drugs that may be used by their parents and their friends, which are comparably safe, along with prescription drugs. Also contributing to the problem is the fact that the heroin that is available today is cheaper, even compared to the prescription painkillers that their parents take. A single pill of Vicodin or Oxycontin can cost between $ 40 and $ 70 or more, compared with a small bag of heroin, which is dramatically less in cost, but can give a user a similar high. Heroin has the added benefit that not only is it cheaper and has a similar effect, but there is no prescription required to purchase it. All compared, heroin is a better deal. Times They are A-changing… It is important to note that while those teenagers of the 60s and 70s used alcohol and marijuana as their primary drugs of choice due to their lower cost and relative ease of access, heroin has to a great extend replaced these drugs for today’s youth, making it their drug of choice. The truth is, heroin is no longer thought of as a drug confined to adult junkies in the inner-cities. Those who target those of new markets for these drugs are turning to pre-teen and teenagers in the suburbs to replace the aging adult user populations of yesteryear, who have seen declining numbers as they age. (Latture 17) The reasons for this shifting market are unclear and are still being studied, but it is generally assumed to be caused by the slow success of anti-drug messages that have been released on this older user market for the past 40+ years. Although it is true that drug use overall for this older Student Name 4 group has been effective, law enforcement authorities concede that the trafficking of drugs into the United States has not slowed. In fact, if anything, not only are more drugs available, but more dangerous types of drugs have found their way onto the streets of almost all of North America. For heroin, in particular, that amount has only increased in recent years. It should also be noted that the great disposable income of today’s teenagers is at an all-time high, which also contributes to the ability of teenagers to obtain drugs overall, and the cheaper forms such as heroin in particular. Not Your Parents’ Heroin Contributing to the overall problem is the fact that the heroin available to today’s users is as much as 15 times as potent as that of decades past. Adding this to the fact that heroin is now cheaper and much more readily available than years past, and you have a recipe for potential disaster. In years past, heroin was still one of the most potent and addicting drugs available. Combine this with the fact that misinformation about the use of today’s heroin may be a contributing factor in the spike in heroin deaths we are seeing today. For example, some experts attribute the misinformation that snorting heroin is less addictive and less dangerous than injecting the drug. This is not the truth, but the misinformation can lead people to use the drug, thereby putting their lives in great danger without them realizing it until after the tragic consequences take place. Student Name 5 It can also be argued that teenagers are more likely to be reckless with their health than more mature people. The “this can’t hurt me” or “that only happens to other people” mentality can have deadly results. The mentality of ignorance can lead teenagers to take undue risks with an overdose as the likely result. This same attitude can lead teenagers to take risks not only with the drug but with mixing with other drugs, as well as with not taking precautions to prevent blood borne diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis. Teenagers are also less likely to seek addiction treatment until it is too late, with an overdose the likely result. Fear of their parent’s reaction is the most common problem for teenagers facing addiction issues, with parents not finding out about addictions until adverse situations such as failure in school or trouble with the law happens. Not Just in Back Alleys An important factor in understanding the full dynamic of the increase in the use of heroin by teenagers is the upswing in use by those in suburban areas, especially compared to the past when drug use was so prevalent among inner-city youth. In the state of New York alone, there are many suburban areas that are experiencing increases in cases of overdoses and deaths due to heroin use among teenagers. Regardless of the reasons for the increase in teenager use of heroin, there must be greater attention paid to the problem and appropriate resources secured to deal with it. Student Name 6 Works Cited Allen, S.R. Teenage Drug Abuse. New York. 2010. Print. Baker, Hilda L., William D. Atkinson, William Wiser. The New Face of Drug Addiction: Teen Users Account for New Rise.[Federal Government], 2009. Print. Latture, Richard D. The Nature of Drug Abuse. New York. 2010. Print. Read More