Counselors: More young people turning to heroin
Posted at: 08/05/2012 2:54 PM
By: Associated Press
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Authorities and drug counselors say young people in the Santa Fe area are increasingly turning to heroin after starting out with prescription drug addictions.
Brian Parkhill, executive director and a counselor with Millennium Treatment Services, tells The Santa Fe New Mexican most of the opiate addicts referred to the drug-treatment center started with some kind of prescription pain medication.
He says they become addicted but can't afford it over a long period of time, so they turn to a cheaper alternative - heroin.
Parkhill added that just two years ago there were five or fewer heroin addicts out of the 80 to 100 patients he typically treats at any given time.
Now, about a quarter of his clients are opiate addicts, usually in the 18- to 25-year-old range.
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