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Experts say teen prescription drug abuse gateway to heroin addiction

Friday, 06 July 2012 13:45
pills042211_optBY MIKE OLIVA
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The misuse of prescription pills among adolescents has been on the rise in New Jersey, and experts are speaking out about its link to heroin addiction.

A special state task force is scheduled to address the problem at Daytop New Jersey, a drug treatment center for adolescents, in Mendham.

Death from prescription drugs tripled between 2000 and 2008, according to national data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, national data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration shows that the number of teens dying from heroin abuse has skyrocketed. In 1999, 198 people between the ages of 15 and 24 died of a heroin overdose, compared to 510 deaths in 2009, the latest year data was taken.

The underlying problem, say experts, is the ease of accessing prescription pills such as Percocet’s, Oxycodone, and Vicodin from emergency rooms, dentist offices, and especially unfinished prescriptions in household medicine cabinets.

“There has been a huge increase in legal prescriptions. It goes to our American problem of not taking care of yourself: not exercising and eating right, and just taking a pill to make it go away,” said Frank Greenagel, recovery counselor and chairman of the task force.

According to NBC News, these prescription painkillers are the link or gateway drug between suburban teens and heroin.

Teens already hooked to pills like Oxycodone will find the same high in heroin, which is about one-tenth the cost, more intense, and easier to buy. Some dealers even give the drugs away for free in the suburbs, then sell to the kids once they become hooked, according to the New York Daily News.

Mexico has seen a huge increase in heroin production to meet the demand - from 7 metric tons in 2002, to 50 metric tons in 2012, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center. In March of 2010, ABC reported the efforts by drug traffickers in Mexico and Columbia to market heroin to suburban teens, by splashing popular logos, like Prada or Chevrolet, on the small drug packets.

Greenagel told the Asbury Park Press that the newly created New Jersey Prescription Drug Monitoring Program will be aiming to help stop the epidemic.

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