Heroin use on the rise among white American adults
- Heroin use is on the rise among white American adults, a new study has warned
- Five times as many reported using heroin in 2012 to 2013 as did a decade prior
- Researchers believe that prescription opioids have played a role in the spike
Mary Kekatos For Dailymail.com
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The use of heroin is on the rise among white American adults, a new study warns.
Scientists say that five times the number of adults reported using heroin in 2012 to 2013 as did in 2001 to 2002.
In addition, the number of adults who reported being dependent on the drug tripled over the same time period, the researchers found.
Whites between the ages of 18 and 44 accounted for the biggest rise in heroin addiction, which has been fueled in part by the misuse of opioid prescription drugs.
Heroin use in the US has risen five-fold in the past decade particularly among white adults, a new study found
The study, conducted at Columbia University, looked at two years of data – 2001 to 2002 and 2012 to 2013 – taken from a national survey called the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions.
Approximately 80,000 adults were interviewed in-person by researchers and were asked questions about whether or not they had ever used heroin in their life and whether or not they had a heroin-use disorder.
A heroin-use disorder means that a person is unable to stop using the drug even if he or she would like to, and the drug interferes with the person’s life and social functioning.
Research showed the percentage of adults with a heroin-use disorder increased from 0.2 percent in 2001 to 2002 to 0.7 percent in 2012 to 2013.
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‘We are seeing that heroin use has increased in the past 10 years,’ said lead author Dr Silvia Martins, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
HOW DONALD TRUMP PLANS TO COMBAT US OPIOID CRISIS
Next month, President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order to deal with the growing opioid epidemic in the US.
The President’s Commission on Combating Opioid Abuse, Addiction, and Overdose will focus on putting together a report, due in the fall, on the opioid crisis and potential solutions.
The commission includes Attorney General Jeff Sessions, HHS Secretary Tom Price, VA Secretary David Shulkin and Defense Secretary James Mattis.
Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie will chair the commission.
The commission will:
- Review the funding and availability of treatment
- Determine the best practices for prevention and recovery
- Evaluate federal programs and the US health system to identify regulatory barriers or ineffective initiatives
- Recommend changes to federal criminal law or other processes.
Many drug policy experts have praised the plan, along with Governor Christie’s involvement due to his views on the value of treatment over punishment for drug abusers.
‘It is more prominent among whites with lower incomes and education and young adults.’
While just 0.3 percent of white adults reported that they had used the drug at any point in their life in 2001 to 2002, this had increased to 1.9 percent in 2012 to 2013.
Heroin use, which includes those who have tried the drug but not become dependent on it, and addiction also rose more among unmarried adults.
Although a jump was seen among women, it was not as prominent as for men.
The researchers believe that prescription opioids have played a role in the spike of heroin use.
Between 2001 and 2002, 36 percent of white adults who used heroin reported that they had previously abused prescription opioids – taking them for ‘non-medical’ reasons before starting heroin.
By 2013, this number has increased to 53 percent.
‘Because the effects of heroin seem so similar to widely available prescription opioids, heroin use appears to have become more socially acceptable among suburban and rural whites,’ Dr Martins said.
She added that there is a necessity for expanding treatment programs, overdose prevention and medication-assisted treatment, and for a change in doctors’ prescribing practices for opioids.
‘I think some level of regulation is needed,’ Dr Martins said.
‘At the same time people who truly need that medication should get it but with greater supervision.’
A surge of reports have come out of adults found passed out from heroin overdoses.
Last September, an Ohio couple was found passed out in their car – with their four-year-old son in the backseat – after overdosing on heroin. Police say they would have certainly died had paramedics not intervened.
And just this January, a 46-year-old babysitter in Florida was arrested when police found her passed out at a gas pump after shooting up on heroin – with a toddler in the backseat of her car.
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