Suburbanites Graduate from Oxy to Smack | The Fix

Availability of drugs, the economy... Many factors contribute to the rising statistics of addiction. This is a disturbing trend. People get comfortable with the prescriptions because they are just pills, and not street drugs. But then, once addicted, they realize the street drugs are cheaper and easier to get, and since they are opiates, just like they are already taking, the once frightening stigma of heroin is removed.

Chicago's Suburbanites Graduate from Oxy to Smack | The Fix: "growing numbers of white suburbanites now graduate from pain pills, such as oxycodone, to heroin—often in reaction to their supplies of prescription drugs drying up. As prescription drug abuse increases in Chicago, so the use of traditional street drugs like heroin continues to spread from the city to the surrounding counties. Heroin deaths in Lake County rose 130% between 2000 and 2009, for example. And although Chicago's number of heroin-related deaths during the decade up to 2008 fell overall, the figure increased 40% among white women. Epperly believes that prescription drug and heroin abuse are “intertwined [and] similar enough that addicts who run out of one may take the other as a substitute.” Users who start on prescription meds, which many consider to be “safe,” find it a simple matter to move on to heroin, which is “now easier to try because it’s pure enough to snort or smoke rather than inject,” explains Epperly."

'via Blog this'