Heroin Addiction Research Paper

Words: 1777
Pages: 8

Heroin, a growing addiction in teens and young adults, has risen in purity and decreased in price(Heroin Dependence). Sociologists and scientists who have an interest in this spike, blame factors such as the price and purity, ease of acquiring, and dependence on opioid’s such as prescription pain killers for the recent numbers of heroin overdoses in teens. This epidemic spread from inner city areas to the suburbs, where heroin originally did not have a grip on the drug scene, which causes researchers to question what has pumped heroin into the veins of suburban towns. According to the Foundation for a Drug Free World, there are approximately 16 million opiate users worldwide and “Between 1995 and 2002, the number of teenagers in America, aged 12 to 17, who used heroin at some point in their lives increased by 300%(Foundation for a Drug Free World).” Since the average addiction rate of heroin is about 23%, that means that almost 3, 680, 000 of those people who used heroin became addicted to it. Researchers from multiple different areas have also discovered a pattern in the use and overdose of heroin use in adolescents stemming from an increase in prescriptions for pain killing drugs such as OxyContin and Vicodin, which both are classified as opiates. Since these pills generally are only obtainable …show more content…
Since heroin sold on the street is generally cut with another drug or other ingredients, street heroin does not usually have a regular potency; meaning that users may never know how powerful the heroin they use really is. The researchers say that this habit quickly becomes expensive yet heroin users will strive to find money in any way they can to get another fix. With this kind of mindset, teens and adolescents may be getting hooked on heroin and find that they cannot