Teen Heroin Addiction

Teen Heroin Addiction is on the Rise; Teens graduate to heroine after using prescription drugs such as Oxycontin, Vicodin, and Percocet

Heroin Addiction

Of all the illicit drugs being abused by teens today heroin may be one of the most serious and life threatening. Once thought of as the drug of the seventies and nineties sociologists agree that teen heroin addiction has been on the rise in recent years due to the availability of opioid-based painkillers such as Vicodin and Oxycontin. Often adolescents begin experimenting with left over prescription drugs left around their homes and acquire a taste for the euphoric body high produced by abusing them.

Opioid-based prescription drugs such as these are very costly on the street. Users frequently graduate to their cheaper, stronger older brother heroin. The drug produces a more intense version of the same high but at a lower cost. While most teens cannot afford to regularly pay for prescription drugs, heroin seems as a cheap alternative, but the cost can be deadly.

Is it Just A Habit?

What is particularly disturbing about this is the rate at which their dependence increases. What was at first a weekend pill habit can rapidly progress to a daily heroin addiction. Another huge danger of this trend is that teens regularly make the mistake of thinking that because they have used other opiates that heroin is somehow not as dangerous as it actually is. When a user scores off the street they have no idea about the contents strength or weather or not it has been cut with some other dangerous chemical. When a user takes too much and it causes important body functions such as breathing to shut down it can be fatal and is referred to as an overdose. Being unaware of the strength of the heroin and accidentally using more than the body can take is believed to be the source of a large percentage of accidental teen heroin overdoses. If you suspect your teen may be addicted to heroin it is imperative to get help.