The amount of teen dying from heroin overdoses has doubled in the past 10-years. Local authorities and hospitals are seeing an increase in heroin related overdoses and deaths. There is also more teens seeking treatment and authorities say they know why more teens are becoming addicted to the drug.
"I would say the availability of pharmaceutical pain killers, Hydrocodone, Vicodin, those types of pills," says Kevin Winslow, Director of the Quad City Metropolitan Enforcement Group.
When a person becomes addicted to prescription pills it increases their chances for exposure to heroin.
"The next step for them progressive wise is into heroin," adds Winslow, "It's easier to get, they can snort it and it's cheaper than the prescription medication they try to obtain."
Heroin and pain killers are both opiates, so the high is the same. The availability of both drugs has contributed to the amount of cases authorities are handling.
"We're starting to see a trend in heroin arrests, heroin use and heroin overdoses within the last 15-months," says Winslow.
Local recovery centers say the majority of patients they are treating for heroin addiction are 18-24-years old. Overcoming a heroin addict is very difficult and counselors say it's one of the hardest drug addictions to beat. There's a lot of specialized treatment, because heroin addicts loose they physical and emotional pain tolerance.
"The withdrawals from opiates are not very pleasant, people will throw up and they'll get dehydrated," says Andrew Garrison, a counselor with the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery at The Abbey, "Not only are people fighting the cravings and urges, they also have a hard time dealing with emotional and mental stress. They also have to build a whole new network of people, because there tends to be a whole underground network of opiate addicts.
Changing the support system and everyone someone knows can be really challenging."
