Heroin Abuse Rising Among Youth Prescription opiates are attributed to creating the increase in the number of new heroin users in America seeking rehab help. The exponential growth in the number of prescription painkiller abusers in the country has led to what many in the addiction treatment field predicted – a rise in heroin addiction.
The reason is that once someone becomes dependent on these drugs they wind up needing more of the drug to achieve the same effect – tolerance builds. Heroin is generally stronger and cheaper than commonly abused prescription opiates such as OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet and others. Therefore, it becomes more “attractive” to opiate addicts and that is how you find people who never thought they would ever be doing heroin now snorting or injecting the drug. A CBS report recently highlighted a town in New York where teenage heroin overdose deaths sparked school officials to hold a mandatory heroin abuse education forum in order for students to be allowed to attend the prom.
Nassau County, NY has seen a 75 percent increase in heroin overdose deaths in the last year. Health officials in Massachusetts released a special committee report stating that heroin and OxyContin addiction in the state have reached epidemic levels. The report indicated that between 2002 and 2007, 3,265 people in Massachusetts died of opiate-related overdoses. By comparison, Massachusetts lost 78 soldiers in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq during that time. Meanwhile, in Jefferson County, AL the number of heroin-related deaths has tripled since 2007. Unfortunately, the uniform lack of success in the heroin addiction treatment field has left many opiate abusers and their family members feeling hopeless.
In recent years one of the emerging leaders for helping people end addiction to drugs such as heroin has been Narconon Riverbend Retreat in Louisiana. It is a long-term inpatient drug rehabilitation program with a success rate of more than 70%. “There are several key components to our rehabilitation program,” comments Executive Director Jeff Lukas, “One important aspect is the extended physical detoxification process we use that eliminates the opiate residues from the tissue of a person’s body, which helps to significantly reduce cravings for the drugs.” Lukas, who was also a former heroin abuser many years ago, comments that the second part of the program, “helps people to become more responsible for themselves and their actions and puts them back in control of their lives.”
Despite being in Louisiana, people come to Narconon Riverbend Retreat from all over the country, including places like California and Florida, which have many well-known treatment centers to choose from. For more information or to get help for a loved one in need, call 1-866-422-4650 or visit http://www.drugabusesolution.com.
