The recent death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman has sparked a dialogue nationally about heroin and its deadly effects. More and more people are discussing why this drug is growing in popularity and as a result becoming a bigger problem nationally as well as here in the Houston area.
According to a recent story from KTRK.com, it all comes down to money. As authorities have cracked down on the use of prescription pills they’ve become more expensive and harder to get. Heroin on the other hand is easy to get as well as comparatively cheap, and users of heroin can get high with as little as $5. And only use of heroin can hook users.
The insightful story on KTRK.com talks about Deer Park resident Omid Samadany’s battle with heroin addiction. What started as a prescription drug addiction after a knee surgery grew into a full heroin addiction, which he found to be much cheaper and easier to find.
While heroin was previously an issue for people in their thirties and forties, doctors are seeing more people in their twenties trying and getting hooked to the very addictive drug.
According to the US Dept of Health and Human Services heroin abuse among those using for the first time has gone up by almost 60 percent in the last 10 years, which means that heroin use has increased from 90,000 to 156,000 new users each year. Prescription pill abuse has slowly decreased at the same time.
Source: KTRK.com, “Experts: Heroin becoming bigger problem in Houston, across the United States,” by Pooja Lodhia, February 6, 2014