Heroin use jumps among women, middle class – Independent Mail

New numbers from the feds are shedding light on what’s being called a heroin epidemic across the country.

The findings mirror trends seen in earlier reports, which noted marked increases in heroin use in people who are white and living outside major cities, said Katherine Keyes, a Columbia University epidemiologist who researches drug abuse issues.

The CDC report describes just how risky heroin addiction can be.The first problem seen is the increasing number of people addicted to prescription pain-killers, majority having the same active ingredients as heroin. In 60 percent of those cases, the cause of death was attributed to heroin and at least one other drug, often cocaine, according to Chris Jones, lead author of the new report.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the report, which is based on yearly face-to-face surveys of about 67,000 Americans, on Tuesday. Heroin use among women doubled between 2002 and 2013, the period of study, while use among non-Hispanic whites more than doubled. To really see how heroin use has increased, we can look at the change in the rate of deaths.

The experts say the heroin increase is directly contributing to other health problems including rising HIV infections, alcohol addictions, and even auto accidents.

Meanwhile, heroin has become a popular alternative.

Those addicted to opioid painkillers were found to be 40 times more likely to be addicted to heroin.

Heroin is usually taken intravenously but is increasingly being snorted or smoked.

Heroin contains essentially the same chemical as prescription painkillers but costs about five times less on the street, Frieden says. That’s up from under 2 per 1,000 about a decade ago, a 62 percent increase which translates to hundreds of thousands more people, government researchers said.

A January 2015 analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that deaths from opioid addiction leveled off from 2006 to 2008 and then decreased slightly from 2009 thru 2013. Men are still bigger users, NPR notes, but women are catching up.

“There is a substantial need for treatment and particularly for treatment for young families”, said Patrick citing how many young women were now addicted to heroin compared to 2002.

That’s also why the CDC report recommended a specific focus on both heroin and opioid pain reliever abuse as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce abuse and dependence on the drugs.

But it is the highly addictive painkilling opioids, prescribed and sometimes overprescribed by physicians who are not highly trained in pain management, that concern officials most, Frieden said.

In a statement, Chuck Rosenberg, the DEA’s acting administrator, said the agency will continue to work with the CDC. “In this way, we hope to complement the crucial efforts of the CDC and our nation’s public health agencies”.