Drug addiction treatment centers are gearing up for more heroin addict admissions due to the increasing heroin use around the country. Whereas the past five years has seen an influx in the amount of inpatient drug rehab patients addicted to pain pills, drug addiction treatment centers realize prescription painkillers are becoming harder to obtain. Therefore, inpatient drug rehabs will most likely be admitting more heroin users. Heroin is cheaper than prescription pain pills, easier to get, and extremely powerful.
Initiatives by police to crack down on prescription pain pill abuse have caused a rise in the street price of pills. According to the Courier Journal pharmaceutical companies have also made it much more difficult to abuse the pills by implementing new formulas during the manufacturing process.
Louisville, Kentucky is just one city around the country that has seen a spike in heroin use. So far, in 2012, Louisville Kentucky police have seized 7,087 grams of heroin. This amount reflects a tremendous increase in the amount seized over the past four years. In 2008, for example, police seized 104 grams. At this time, prescription painkillers were easier to obtain, cheaper, and more potent than they are today.
Drug Treatment Centers are prepared to treat heroin addicts in much the same way they have been treating prescription pain pill abusers. New drugs for participants at inpatient drug rehabs, such as suboxone, work to curb cravings for heroin as well as synthetic opioids, such as prescription painkillers.
