Heroin Addiction Started with the use of Prescription Drugs

I have been studying and trying to talk to parents and teachers about prescription drugs now for 7 years. But today's
Dispatch really got to me. We have here in the Columbus area a perfectly beautiful suburban family. Two parents, together, no blended family situation to blame. No urban situation to click our tongues over. To quote: "Ciara is the country's new face of heroin: a young, white, suburbanite whose addiction began at 15 (yes, that is 15) with PRESCRIPTION PAINKILLERS her boyfriend stole from his father's medicine cabinet." Couldn't write it better myself.

Officials at Maryhaven(the largest addiction treatment center here in Central Ohio) have seen a steady increase in opiate use by adolescents in the last eighteen months. The number of people seeking help from publicly funded treatment centers for opiate addiction has increased by 300% in the last decade. Here is a real stopper: "...officials at both publicly and privately funded facilities agree that young, well-educated white suburban residents are driving the increase, according to the Ohio Dept. of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services. 'The bottom line is, if you think your community is immune, think again,' said department spokesman Eric Wandersleben."

To see more about Ciara and her family, Facts about Heroin, and how to get help, see Sunday May 3 Dispatch.