Heroin is making something of a resurgence lately. Especially amongst young people. Why? Because it’s cheap, and delivers an extremely powerful high. A teenager can purchase heroin on the street for about $10 for a normal dose. It’s an inviting option as it’s becoming very difficult for teens to use their preferred method of getting high; prescription painkillers. Stealing or finishing off a bottle of their parent’s oxy prescription is becoming difficult as parents are more aware of the problem, and buying them on the street is a very unreliable means to get high. Experts also believe that the cost of prescription pills and patches are simply too much for a 17 or 18 year old who may not be employed or simply don’t earn enough, and in addition to that the heroin available now is more potent than ever. This is why health care professionals are becoming concerned with the new rise of heroin in Canada and the US.
It isn’t just kids and young adults who are making the switch from oxycodone type medications to heroin. The surge in heroin use statistics has a lot to do with a new form of oxycodone that was intended to solve the issue of abuse. Many oxy addicts and abusers were crushing the pills and snorting them, as well as mixing them with water and injecting them. The pharmaceutical companies believed they had the answer by making the pills harder to crush and making sure they would dissolve much slower in liquid. The problem they have now realized is that yes their scheme has worked, in fact it’s worked so well that the prescription drug abusers are now turning to a much cheaper option, heroin.
Some experts believe that prescription drug abuse is a suburban and urban drug, and many of them develop a dependance which leads to seeking out more powerful opiates and painkillers, or if that doesn’t work or has failed to live up to expectations, many drug users will switch to heroin as it is more readily available, doesn’t require lying to the doctor, is very potent and is significantly cheaper. The problems begin to pile up, however, as heroin is exceptionally dangerous and powerfully addictive. There are a variety of ways to ingest the drug, but the most popular is using a needle, which in itself is dangerous as many IV drug users share their equipment and end up with serious diseases such as HIV/AIDS as well as liver problems and diseases like hepatitis.
Prevention is the most important and fundamental way to deal with a potential change from legally prescribed painkillers to heroin. There are plenty of bad reasons people use to lie to themselves when it comes to an addiction switch. “It saves me money”, yes but eventually the costs will grow and grow as the dependance reals you in. Pain management and recreational use are other bad reasons to make the switch to heroin. Not to mention the fact that even if you are abusing the pills your doctor prescribed, you are fully aware of what’s in the pills as well as the proper dosage and warnings on the bottle. If you’re going out to the streets to score heroin, you have absolutely no control over what you’re buying. The drug could be laced with god knows what and could land you in serious condition at a hospital’s emergency room.
If you believe you may have a problem with pain, or perhaps you’re seeing the signs that you may have a problem, it is important that you seek help before things become too serious.
