Report Finds Those Addicted to Heroin Are Mostly White Suburban Kids

A new analysis shows that the demographics of heroin addiction have shifted drastically in the last 60 years.

A report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Psychiatry reveals that the stereotypical heroin addict has changed.  Six decades ago, the average heroin addict lived in the inner city, was often young, black, and male, and began using the opiate when he was 16. Today, that demographic has shifted to the suburbs – the average user may be male or female, is usually in his/her mid-twenties, and is white. The path to heroin addiction has changed.  The modern heroin user normally becomes addicted to the drug through an addiction to prescription narcotics and painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin.

“The pattern seems to have shifted entirely,” said lead researcher Theodore Cicero, a professor at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “It appears that, over time, the supply of prescription opioids became a little less abundant, the price rose, and the expense for a drug habit meant these people had to shift to something else.”

Cicero and his colleagues examined 2,800 patients at over 150 addiction treatment centers across the United States. In the 1960’s, 80% of users started their drug habit with heroin; today, 60% of heroin users began with an addiction to prescription painkillers.

“When [heroin] was in the cities, it was something we could ignore,” Cicero said. “Now it’s a problem of mainstream America. It’s hit the middle class . The country has been abusing heroin since back in the 1940s, but at that time it was viewed as a dirty, low-class kind of drug.”

Heroin abuse led to 2,000 deaths in 2007, and as many as 200,000 people went to the ER due to heroin overdose in 2008, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Many people who are addicted to prescription painkillers can find their pills for free – off friends or family, who often have been prescribed legitimate pain medication.  Prescription pain killers can also be obtained through “pill mills” that prescribe potent drugs in large quantities to those who complain of chronic pain.  The Drug Enforcement Administration has begun a serious, nationwide crackdown of pill mills through Medicare, Medicaid, and prescription fraud reducing the supply.  Eventually, friends and family will stop providing the addict with drugs. Once that happens, addicts often turn to heroin.  Heroin is inexpensive in the United States. While OxyContin costs $80 on the street, heroin costs only $10.

Don’t Let a Drug Charge Ruin Your Future

Being arrested for prescription drug abuse, marijuana possession, heroin possession, or other drug charges, is something that can be devastating financially and emotionally, and can have long-lasting personal and professional consequences. We understand what you are going through, and we are here to help. Contact the prescription fraud attorneys at the Strom Law Firm, LLC today for a free consultation to discuss the facts of your case. 803.252.4800