Current Extent of Use
Prescription painkillers such as oxycodone, vicodin, and hydrocodone and more hardcore narcotics such as heroin have a higher potential for abuse.
Recreational use of prescription narcotics by youths between the ages of 12-17 has increased 10x since the 1960s. Data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 1989-2009 proves that today’s youth consume prescription narcotics for nonmedical use 40% more than any other age group. Prescription drugs such as hydrocodone and oxycodone are now the most prescribed drugs in the United States, according to an April 2011 report from the Journal of the American Medical Association. While over 80% of the world’s narcotics are consumed in the U.S., all age groups have shown as rise in use. Easy availability contributes to large extent of use, mostly in teens. Narcotics are slower to be recognized as potentially dangerous and lethal because they are made by pharmaceutical companies. This pharmaceutical backing contributes largely to its overuse.
Recreational use of prescription narcotics by youths between the ages of 12-17 has increased 10x since the 1960s. Data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 1989-2009 proves that today’s youth consume prescription narcotics for nonmedical use 40% more than any other age group. Prescription drugs such as hydrocodone and oxycodone are now the most prescribed drugs in the United States, according to an April 2011 report from the Journal of the American Medical Association. While over 80% of the world’s narcotics are consumed in the U.S., all age groups have shown as rise in use. Easy availability contributes to large extent of use, mostly in teens. Narcotics are slower to be recognized as potentially dangerous and lethal because they are made by pharmaceutical companies. This pharmaceutical backing contributes largely to its overuse.
Heroin use is still relatively modest, compared to the use of other narcotics such as prescription painkillers. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 8.7% of Americans had recently taken illicit drugs, only a quarter of 1% of this number over the age of 12 said that they had used heroin.
An estimated 10 tons of
raw opium equals one ton of heroin. The worldwide opium output in 1996 (17
years ago) translated into about 430 tons of heroin. About half that was sent
to the United States. Heroin is not only an issue for towns and cities across
the United States but in several other countries as well (Vancouver, Canada).
Vancouver, Canada is the only city in North America that provides a legal
facility for drug addicts to use heroin and other types of substances into
their veins. This was done to curb the high levels of disease and death spread
through shared needles in Vancouver’s downtown Eastside. This facility is
called InSite and has resulted in
many reactions on both sides of the spectrum (positive and negative) from the
people of Vancouver and elsewhere (as well as our classroom). Another similar
facility exists in Copenhagen, Denmark.