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[Black Republican]

way higher than i thought

http://www.forbes.com/sites/cjarlot...roin-users-started-with-prescription-opioids/

With heroin-related overdoses rapidly increasing in the United States, many in the country are working to understand why users turn to the highly addictive drug so quickly in the first place. Taking a look at high school students, one group of researchers examined the potential relationship between prescription painkiller and heroin use.

There were 16,235 deaths involving prescription opioids in the country in 2013, an increase of 303% from 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There were 8,257 heroin-related deaths in 2013, up 39% from 2012.

Published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, a study revealed a new connection between heroin and prescription opioid use in high school students. The report, titled “Nonmedical Opioid Use and Heroin Use in a Nationally Representative Sample of US High School Seniors,” concluded that more than 75% of high school heroin users began experimenting further with opiates after first being introduced to prescription painkillers.

Dr. Joseph J. Palamar, an affiliate of the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) and an assistant professor of Population Health at NYU Langone Medical Center (NYULMC), told Forbes in an interview that many teens are hesitant to trust drug education in schools and data provided by their government.


“Teens are commonly taught that marijuana is as dangerous as heroin and then when they’re exposed to marijuana they may develop a distrust regarding all other drug information,” he said. “Teens are generally only taught how drugs are bad and there is little focus on why some people use.”

Nearly 25% of students who reported using prescription opioids more than 40 rimes reported lifetime heroin use, the study showed.

“Opioids are an even more complicated situation because most other drugs are illegal in all contexts, yet opioids — the most dangerous drugs —are prescribed by doctors and are often sitting there in parents’ medicine cabinets,” Palamar. If teens don’t believe warnings about street drugs then why would they be afraid to use government-approved pharmaceutical grade pills?”

Teens who are hooked on opioids almost always say they’ll never use heroin,” he said. “Months later after they’ve move onto heroin because they could not longer find or afford their pills, they say they’ll only sniff heroin but never inject. Next thing they know they’re injecting.”

Many teens are unaware of the fact that most heroin abusers started using prescription opioids before becoming addicted to the drug. “Dependence can really sneak up on you,” he said.

“Longitudinal research is needed to more closely examine which pill users are moving onto heroin,” Palamar said. “We’re even lacking basic longitudinal research showing that opioid use usually precedes heroin use. While we believe that pill use preceded heroin use in most cases in our study, we were unable to detect whether heroin was actually used first by some teens.”

 

[Shake Appeal]

Yeah, I've often wondered (and worried) about the demonization of marijuana contributing to the abuse of much more dangerous drugs.

 

[dabig2]

Yeah, I've often wondered (and worried) about the demonization of marijuana contributing to the abuse of much more dangerous drugs.

Wonder no more (but do still worry, worry a lot):

It's an oldschool mix of brutal racism, sexism, and corporatism.

 

[DarknessTear]

Ohhh. I've been taking an opioid this week for pain! RIP me.

 

[Krejlooc]

Ohhh. I've been taking an opioid this week for pain! RIP me.

haha, just realize that this says that 75% of heroin users started with opiods, not that 75% of opiod users become heroin addicts

 

[smurfx]

maybe doctors need to stop handing out prescriptions for opioids like if it was candy.

 

[DarknessTear]

haha, just realize that this says that 75% of heroin users started with opiods, not that 75% of opiod users become heroin addicts

Lol, I was just joking anyway. My pain is going away so I probably won't take the stuff anymore anyway. I hate taking meds!

maybe doctors need to stop handing out prescriptions for opioids like if it was candy.

What they need to do is start giving out narcotic meds to people who need them! I was in so much pain this week that I wanted to die, and all I had was some useless painkillers. Luckily they gave me some tylenol with codeine (in hospital only, no prescription) and it made it to where normal pain meds after would bring the pain down.

 

[Paracelsus]

Prescription?

 

[Tesseract]

maybe doctors need to stop handing out prescriptions for opioids like if it was candy.

they have in florida, don't be like florida

 

[mattp]

anyone that lives in nj could have told them this years ago

it's terrible

 

[DudeWithNoName]

maybe doctors need to stop handing out prescriptions for opioids like if it was candy.

It sounds like the parents of these kids also need to stop asking for opioids. I have a feeling a lot of these people have "backaches" and such. The kind they break out the pills for on Friday night.

 

[diffusionx]

Anyone interested in this topic should read "Dreamland" by Sam Quinones. It's a great book that talks about how prescription opioids and cheap, reliable heroin exploded in popularity and made a few people tons of money.

 

[Fuchsdh]

Wonder no more (but do still worry, worry a lot):

It's an oldschool mix of brutal racism, sexism, and corporatism.

Do you actually believe that tripe? No doubt racism was part of the reason for marijuana prohibition, but attempting to turn the reasons for prohibition into "white guys were afraid of the black dick" is pretty hilarious.

On topic, the article doesn't really delve into where and why they're getting these drugs. I thought it was going to be another side effect of over-prescription of opioids, but it sounds like that's at best tangentially related: it's kids who want to score drugs and ignore all warnings.

 

[SocksAndShoes]

I mean....duh? I thought it would be closer to 90+% honestly.

 

[Dr. Feel Good]

Four of my friends went from opiads in high school to heroin by college. Mostly snorting, eventually to injecting. One died from overdose.

The article is spot on. People need to realize it's a serious issue.

 

[Emerson]

Not really news to anyone in the know, but always nice to have more exposure on the issue.

And people wonder why/rage because I don't hand out percocet for a sprained ankle. Unfortunately entirely too many of my colleagues do, and the problem is only getting worse.