Painkillers use breeds new face of heroin addiction

The substance abuse and mental health services administration have stated that initiations to heroin use have “increased eighty percent among twelve to seventeen year olds since 2002.” In fact, the rate of young adult deaths caused by heroin has “more then doubled in one decade.” Although at one time marijuana was considered a gateway drug to the use of more serious drugs like heroin, it now appears that the more typical gateway to teen drug abuse is the overuse of prescription painkillers. In fact “one in eight high school seniors” have said that they use such painkillers, which were not prescribed for them. A major problem associated with these prescription drugs is that kids believe that anything that is a prescription is a okay and parents continue to leave the drugs available because they don’t know what usage will lead to. An additional problem is that while the prescription drugs are expensive, heroin is far cheaper, and for teens that live in urban or suburban settings heroin is much easier to buy then prescription drugs. Several interviews with families of young former users give a personal perspective to this alarming statistical information.

I chose this article because it is very clear that this is a growing problem among people my age and it also indicates that such drug abuse is happening in suburbs where people least expect it, rather than in the cliché idea that it happens only in inner cities. Even more important than the importance to me personally is the fact that a whole age group in our society nation wide apparently is vulnerable to the problem that the article discusses. Even further, since many parents seem to be overusing prescription painkillers this issue involves informing both parents and kids about the link between prescription painkillers and heroin usage. So although the heroin use by kids seems to be the center of the problem, it may be that parents are as much involved. Consequently all of society is involved.

Although the article presents a number of very confusing statistics and explains the connection between parental overuse of painkillers and teenage heroin addiction, it doesn’t really offer any specific guidelines about how to attack the problem. There are interesting references and quotations from families who have been involved in the problem, which makes it easier for the reader to relate, but the only real solution that’s offered is that parental support and love can help to get an addicted teenager through to a healthier life. It would have been very helpful if the article had concluded with some possible guidelines for parents to hopefully prevent the usage of either the painkillers or heroin before it even started. There is no reference at all in the article to the root causes of why either painkillers or heroin, which is used as a painkiller, is needed. So although the article is very clearly written and the personal reference are very convincing I think it would have been more effective if such advice or guideline had been given or at least hinted at.