heroin.jpg
It's being called an epidemic with tragic consequences. An alarming number of teens and young adults in the Puget Sound area are going from prescription pain killers to heroin as their drug of choice. (AP Photo/file)

Heroin problem in Puget Sound area getting younger

BY Ursula Reutin  on February 15, 2013 @ 7:09 am (Updated: 9:38 am - 2/15/13 )

It's being called an epidemic with tragic consequences.

An alarming number of teens and young adults in the Puget Sound area are going from prescription pain killers to heroin as their drug of choice.

"If we don't get our hands and heads around how to stop this, we're going to be losing kids left and right," says Frank Couch, the Executive Director of the Science and Management of Addictions. "In fact, we are."

Couch is also a counselor at SAMA and he says heroin use among suburban teens is rampant. "It's no longer the person of color in the alley with a needle in his arm," he says. "Now, it's the kid with the Ray-Bans on, smoking heroin in his room with his friends."

Heroin is not a new problem in Seattle. In 1998, the heroin death rate in the city soared to 144, prompting Rolling Stone magazine to label Seattle "the junkie town."

Then, for about a decade, prescriptions for opiate-based painkillers skyrocketed and pain pills surpassed heroin as the leading cause of fatal overdoses. In the last couple of years, drug makers have reformulated the pills so they can't be easily ground down to inject. In addition, stricter guidelines for doctors and increased awareness have made them harder to get. So now, heroin is making a comeback.

"The Oxy's are quite expensive [...] $90 a pill vs. $20 for a small bag of heroin," Couch explains.

About 40 percent of heroin addicts at local needle exchanges say their addiction started with prescription painkillers. Not only is the heroin today cheaper, it's more potent, and that means it's more addictive. The resurgence of the drug is evidenced by the calls coming into the King County Recovery Helpline.

"The number one drug that people are calling about in King County and many other parts of the state is heroin, followed by prescription painkillers, then maybe marijuana. That's new," says Caleb Banta-Green, a research scientist at the University of Washington's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute.

What's also new, he says, is how young the addicts are when they go into heroin treatment for the first time.

"The biggest growth we're seeing is between the 18 and 29 year olds. And that's not just in King County, that's pretty much across the state," says Banta-Green. "That's quite striking. The average age of people coming in for heroin treatment has dropped from 40 to 26, that's an enormous change over a decade."

Banta-Green says it's alarming because it foreshadows what's to come. Although the heroin overdose death rate today is about half of what it was in 1998, he says deaths are the ultimate "lagging indicator."

While treatment is available, SAMA's Director Frank Couch says there aren't enough beds or facilities for the size of the problem. Rehab is also expensive, with in-patient treatment easily costing thousands of dollars a month.

If you don't have insurance, he says your child has to "cross the line," either by getting kicked out of school or committing a drug crime and face legal charges. "If that's your access into treatment, then you've already slipped pretty far down the scale with your addiction," he says.

There are other barriers. The age of consent for drug treatment in Washington is 13 years old and the state has no lock-down facilities. Once your kid hits that age, your child has to agree to go to treatment. At any point, they can decide they no longer want to continue getting help and check themselves out.

Couch says drug addiction is a chronic, progressive illness that only gets better with regular treatment. He says it needs to become more of a priority because early education about the dangers and early intervention are critical.

"We need to do a better job at how we treat and manage this addiction because it's ruining lives of too many young people," he says. "This is our future and we need to give them a better chance."

For more information about SAMA and how to get help for a drug addiction visit samafoundation.org. Also visit stopoverdose.org for information on how to stop an opiate overdose and prevent an overdose death.

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Ursula Reutin, KIRO Radio Reporter
Ursula Reutin is the news anchor for The Dori Monson Show and has worked nearly every position in the KIRO Radio newsroom since her arrival in 1988.
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Comments (45)


  • Add A Comment

  • longwayhome wrote...
    Darwin
    February 15, 2013 8:41 pm
    Let them alone, there are too many of them (little republicans) in this country anyway. Clean the slate, schools are overcrowded, DSHS is over run with kids that have been abandoned by their republican parents, thanks to bush and his policies that are just now catching up to us. The parents of these unfortunate kids are the one's to blame, added to the lax regulations implemented by, guess who? Your republican party! Let them overdose and relieve them of a life of addiction and unhappiness.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • wsualumn wrote...
    I Don't Think
    February 16, 2013 9:05 am
    Heroin addiction isn't limited to just kids of Democrats. When I had a job as a kid at The Country Club, there were a number of prominent business men from Snohomish County. A number of these conservatives had kids with drug problems. I could also see why: they spent way too much time golfing and boozing with their golf buddies. They were adults that wanted to continue being young men in their twenties when they weren't tied down. I'm sure they had a lot of pressure from their jobs and they liked to "blow off" some steam, but it became quite evident that there were problems that needed to be addressed. Now I am sure we can talk about the working grunt that comes after work and drinks his six pack, while choosing beer over sitting down with his kids and helping them out with their homework or throwing them the ball in the backyard. Drug and alcohol addiction isn't limited to just the kids of(or adults) of one party. I would find it interesting if they decided to ask what the party affiliation is of the patients that enter The Betty Ford Clinic.
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  • wsualumn wrote...
    Meant To Say
    February 16, 2013 9:06 am
    The members weren't in their twenties(closer to fifty and many in their mid fifties), but wanted to behave as if they were.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • yeomalt wrote...
    Heroin at Port Angeles
    March 2, 2013 12:33 pm
    If the Border Patrol has the manpower to establish a 50 agent station at Port Angeles- how does heroin get into the US?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }