The face of heroin use is changing in America. It has long been perceived that heroin addiction mainly affected those living in inner cities and with less economic accessibility. A new study shows that this stereotype is far from the truth with 90% of the drugs users found to be white and 75% living in the suburbs outside of cities.
These modern heroin users are older than the users of decades ago. People who have started using heroin recently are on average in their early 20s and of
both genders. Whereas, the first time heroin users in the past were in their teens, averaging 16 years old, and mostly male with an equal mix of races.
This study done by JAMA Psychiatry also highlighted a link between medical opioid abuse and the rise in heroin use. JAMA surveyed 2,800 heroin users and the result shows that 75.2% of them were introduced to opioids through prescription drugs.
The study touched on the key reasons for the increased use of heroin as opposed to prescription opioids. The main catalyst to increased heroin use is that heroin is cheaper and more readily accessible.
An effort by the FDA to make opioids abuse proof, or tamper-proof is also unintentionally causing a rise in heroin use, rather than the intended purpose of deterring opioid abuse. The goal of the FDA is to make it much harder for the pills to be crushed and snorted or mixed with alcohol by adding resin and other hardening agents to the pills.
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