Last updated : December 16, 2024
According to the CDC, heroin usage has risen across almost all demographics, with the greatest increase among women and those with higher incomes. Between 2000 and 2013, when heroin deaths were adjusted for age, every region of the country saw an increase in heroin use, with the nation’s heartland seeing the greatest increase.
From 2002-2013, heroin deaths nearly quadrupled, with over 8,000 in 2013 alone. As heroin use increases, other drugs, like cocaine and prescription opioids are also on the rise. More than 9 out of 10 heroin users admit to using at least one other drug.
What are opiates?
The neurotransmitters in the brain that perceive pain enjoy reduced transmission when under the influence of an opiate. Opioids are painkillers.
The most common medications in this class of drugs include hydrocodone, oxycodone, codeine, and morphine. Heroin is a highly addictive and illegal form of opiate.
Prescription painkillers are usually prescribed for moderate chronic or acute pain and dental procedures. Morphine is common in controlling pain during and after surgical procedures, whereas codeine, frequently paired with acetaminophen, is used for mild pain or as a cough suppressant.
Why worry about prescriptions?
When prescribed opioids are used the way they are meant to be, they can be quite effective at alleviating pain safely and effectively. Regular and prolonged use, however, can cause a physical dependence on the drug. Physical dependence is a sign of addiction and abuse of an opioid can also lead to severe respiratory depression and death.
Because they are useful when used properly, people have access to a powerfully addictive drug, which also means people who aren’t supposed to use them have easier access. Think of the protection and safeguards used to keep a pharmacy safe because of the drugs behind that counter. The minute a person pays for their prescription, they’re walking out with a controlled substance. Unless there’s a lock on the medicine cabinet, there’s a very good chance that people who aren’t prescribed a drug can get their hands on it in someone’s home.
Opiods are:
- dangerously addictive
- commonly prescribed
- potentially deadly (killing 44 Americans every single day)
- a gateway to heroin use
Ohio in trouble
Heroin use in Ohio has skyrocketed in the past decade. The admissions to rehab facilities from heroin addiction have more than doubled (from 4,325 in 2002 to 9,515 in 2012). Heroin is now a factor in over 18 percent of rehab admissions, second only to alcohol and marijuana.
There is a growing number of middle-class women using heroin in Ohio. It likely began innocently enough with prescription drugs, but over time, these drugs lose their efficacy, requiring more and more to obtain the same results. As physicians are under intensifying scrutiny to justify their prescribing habits and are tightening their opioid belts, the drug dealers are working harder than ever to peddle their product.
Cuyahoga County has been particularly hard hit. In 2012, 161 people overdosed on heroin, which was up substantially from the 107 overdoses the year before. Legal and illegal opioids accounted for almost 63 percent of Ohio’s 1,544 drug overdose deaths in 2010. Scioto County showed medical providers were prescribing opioids at such an incredible rate, there were over 103 doses of pain pills for every resident in the county. In 2013, heroin overdoses took the lives of 983 Ohioans. Last year, that figure was up to over 1,150 or 23 deaths every week.
What can be done?
Heroin addiction frequently begins with an addiction to prescribed drugs. To counteract the growing numbers of Ohioans addicted to pain pills, Ohio Gov. John Kasich introduced a new opiate abuse initiative as part of a long fight against opiate addiction in the state.
Doctors and pharmacists will be able to easily search the state’s opiate tracking system. The Buckeye State will be the first to link a prescription database, known as OARRS (Ohio Automated Rx Reporting System) with electronic medical records maintained by physicians and pharmacists. This will effectively put an end to the common habit of drug addicts “doctor shopping,” going from one physician to the next in one of the first phases of addiction. This will also provide a better system for holding doctors more accountable. In addition to the tracking system, scientists have developed drugs which help block the effects of those painkillers for addicts, helping with the withdrawal process.
Until new numbers come in that show opiate overdosing is on the decline in Ohio, trying to slow the increase seems like the only alternative.
