Last updated : November 11, 2024
Normally considered a drug for poverty stricken and working class males, heroin is now a drug for people of greater means, according to recent studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other reputable sources. What’s happening in Ohio suburbs is a representation of a growing trend across the United States. More and more, middle-class women are using the drug.
Stressing out
Many women in Ohio are becoming used to the idea of opiates not from heroin, but from legal prescription drugs such as Oxycontin. People will take these drugs in many cases as a prescription for anxiety or pressure that stems from work or social obligations. Over time, the law of diminishing returns keeps them from realizing the full effect of the opioid, and they will have the temptation to move on to something stronger. This is usually when the illegal drugs will make their appearance in the lives of these women, but it would not be possible without an increased accessibility to the drug.
Heroin is easier than ever to obtain
The DEA continues to disrupt the supply chain by targeting drug dealers, but these efforts have yet to stop heroin in the more affluent areas of the country. Law enforcement agencies were able to seize more than 4800 pounds of heroin on the southwestern border of the United States in 2013, but where there is more money, there is also more incentive to find ways to get the drugs to the users.
Not just a withdrawl issue
The effects of the difficult economy continue to take their toll on the American family. Because of the low property values and high cost of living even in the sleepier places around Ohio, households are pressed for money. If a home went from one income to two to make ends meet, there may be more than what was previously needed. More money, less free time, higher stress, and health issues may foster a desire for escape. Other drugs like cocaine and marijuana seem to get more attention and without the spotlight, the impact of the drug on a middle-class user’s life might not seem as dangerous.
Doctors may not be as careful with prescriptions
Doctors who are prescribing opioid drugs such as Oxycontin are not taking the powerful effects of that drug on the body into full account when it comes to middle-class patients. Opioid drugs have more of an immediate effect on the central nervous system than perhaps any other class of drugs, meaning that the addiction that a person has to a prescription drug can quickly become physical rather than simply psychological. Where doctors may think a patient is more well-adjusted, it may be the factors which have middle-class women more well-off actually are the same factors that make them more vulnerable to abuse.
The CDC’s study concludes that use of heroin’s greater among all demographics and it’s accompanied by abuse of other drugs. They continue to recommend education about the prescriptions that become addictive and lead to heroin use and awareness of the factors that are causing more women of higher income to be at risk.
