The preferences of young people nowadays, in terms of recreational drugs, are said to be changing. From marijuana, alcohol, and acid, more young people seem to be turning to powerful prescription painkillers and heroin.
More local drug overdose deaths could be attributed to heroin, as opposed to other drugs.
Many of the victims of drug overdose are young people, some as young as 17. Coroner’s files reveal that between 2006 and 2010, about a third of drug overdose victims in the counties of Madison and St. Clair were aged 35 or younger; most of these deaths could be attributed to opioids, which include heroin and such prescription painkillers as oxycodone, morphine, methadone, and hydrocodone.
The shift to heroin and prescription painkillers was confirmed by Amy Warren, clinical supervisor at Gateway Foundation Alcohol and Drug Treatment in Belleville, who shared : “There is just a tremendous increase in heroin use and opiate use overall.”
Brian Muller, another recovering addict, described painkillers as similar to heroin, with the exception that “(Heroin) was the same high times 10. It was so much better.”
Harry Sommers, the special agent in charge of the St. Louis Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, revealed that Mexican drug gangs have been marketing a purer form of heroin since 2008, a fact that may have contributed to its rising popularity, even among the youth.