Since having owned and operated sober living houses and developing close relationships with treatment facilities, I guess I now qualify as an “old fart”. At 52, I for one am stunned at the number of heroin addicts who are coming in under 18 years old, not to mention how many over 18 there are. When I was in high school, weed was the thing to do, and coke was considered pretty radical. Heroin for somebody in that age group was pretty much unheard of, and this was in New York City.

Today it is not only not shocking, it is becoming the norm thanks to the gateway of painkiller drugs with heavy opiate doses such as Oxycodone and Oxycontin. Later in life my ex-wife turned me on to opiates, so I fully understand their allure, but what blows me away today is how the DEA has not only not cracked down on these prescription pills, they have opened the floodgates. A half a BILLION of these pills were dispensed in Florida alone a year ago.

The jump from oxycodone or Oxycontin to heroin is an easy one. One starts taking the pills because they are prescribed, and even though they were not perhaps prescribed for YOU, they are a prescription drug so how much harm could one or two do? Not much, but they can give you a heck of a buzz. The best way I have heard the buzz described from opiates is “it’s like being in love — it gives you the same feeling”. Well how many kids (or adults) want to feel like they are loved out there? No wonder the opiate problem has exploded.

The problem is the pills cost as much as $40 each, so a kid (or adult) who is starting to develop a tolerance needs to spend $120 or more to get off. In no time a friend will say “Hey man — don’t be stupid. This other stuff gives you an even better buzz and costs less.” Presto — a clean-cut kid in the Bible Belt just went from experimenting with a pill to hardcore heroin addict in 3 months – 1 year. This article below speaks of how insanely the DEA is handling this problem.

As this is a long, in depth article, I have provided a link to the body of text: