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Ohio heroin abuse worse, first-time users younger

Heroin is so prevalent in Ohio it is “falling out of the sky,” according to new state data that finds children as young as 13 are now starting on the drug, considered a cheap substitute for prescription painkillers.
Regions across the state saw increases in heroin abuse during the past six months, with availability in Cleveland considered at epidemic levels, according to a report released this month by the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services.

Participants in the bi-annual survey, including addicts and drug abuse counselors, say the top reason for the increase comes as people addicted to painkillers “realize that heroin is cheaper and easier to obtain,” the report said.

Ohio has struggled with soaring rates of addiction to prescription painkillers, with a record number of fatal overdoses in 2010.

The report also says recent changes to the painkiller Oxycontin meant to reduce its abuse also has turned painkiller addicts to heroin.

“Heroin remains highly available in all regions,” according to the report. “The general sentiment among participants was that heroin is, ‘falling out of the sky.’”

Rural America finds new killer in drug Opana

Prescription drug abuse is the new scourge of rural America. It now leads to more deaths in the United States than heroin and cocaine combined, and rural residents are nearly twice as likely to overdose on pills than people in big cities, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

While methamphetamine addiction has long been associated with small towns, prescription painkillers have overtaken meth as the most abused drugs in places such as southern Indiana, according to local authorities.

Opana is the hot new prescription drug of abuse, sometimes with tragic consequences.

Law enforcement officials are alarmed by the rise of Opana abuse, which they said started after Oxycontin was changed in late 2010 to make that drug more difficult to snort or inject for a heroin-like high. Oxycontin is a brand of oxycodone.

Opana abuse can be deadly because it is more potent, per milligram, than Oxycontin, and users who are not familiar with how strong it is may be vulnerable to overdosing.

Opana, known by such street names as “stop signs,” “the O bomb,” and “new blues,” is crushed and either snorted or injected. Crushing defeats the pill’s “extended release” design, releasing the drug all at once.

Internet Addiction Linked to Drug Abuse

Parents already panicky about the amount of time their teenage children spend online may now have something new to worry about: All those hours spent Web surfing, chatting, gaming, texting and posting to Facebook could be a warning sign of substance abuse, according to a new study in the March issue of the Journal of Addiction Medicine.

Greek researchers found that teenagers with “pathologic” Internet use were more likely to admit to drug abuse, and as excessive Internet use increased, so did the likelihood of substance abuse. The study also linked substance abuse and excessive Internet use to such personality traits as nonconformity, aggressiveness, recklessness and impulsiveness.

Prescription drug abuse on rise among young

Prescription drug use is on the rise while the average age of the addict is dropping.

“More than 50 percent of law enforcement investigations are because of prescription drugs,” Flagler County Sheriff Don Fleming said. “Twenty-five hundred kids in Florida try drugs every day — 60 percent are under 15.”

Circuit Judge Joseph Will, who works in Volusia County, said the situation can’t be that different between what he sees in his court and what is happening in Flagler County.

“The people we are treating now are under 25 and started (using) in middle school,” he said. “They’ve accomplished nothing. It only takes a short time to become addicted. They have no goals and no direction. It is very sad to meet these young people and see how lost they are.”

“More than 70 percent who come through the courts have a drug problem,” he said. “It costs $150 a day for a ‘good addict’ to feed their addiction. Good addicts don’t have jobs, so they’re going to your house and backyard (to steal).”

Ohio drug overdose deaths hit record in 2010

After a slight downturn in 2009, Ohio logged a record high number of accidental drug overdose deaths in 2010, when 1,544 people died prematurely, according to figures released Thursday by the Ohio Department of Health.

From 2001 to 2010, overdose deaths climbed almost threefold. In 2007, they surpassed traffic crashes as the leading cause of injury death in the state and it hasn’t really been close since — 1,080 crash deaths in 2010.

» Prescription opioids were named on 694 of the death certificates for those victims lost to unintentional overdose. That’s 25 percent higher than the totals killed by heroin (338) and cocaine (213) combined.