UW study: Heroin use on rise as other drug abuse declines

Drug abuse and drug crimes continue to decline across the state of Washington, with one exception. Heroin addiction and overdose deaths are on the rise, according to new research from the University of Washington.

A decade ago, methamphetamine was the drug of choice. But arrest data from police and treatment statistics show meth and other illegal drug use on the decline.

“Prescription opiates and heroin are really the opposite,” said researcher Caleb Banta-Green. “They’re increasing in the midst of overall declines for all drugs.”

Banta-Green is the author of the report and a researcher at the UW’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute. He said the trend toward heroin use began in 2009, following a crackdown on abuse of prescription opiates, such as oxycodone.

“My sense is, what happened is, that really sort of dried up the diverted market and those people who were using prescription opiates illegally, in a diverted, abusive way, could no longer get those drugs and they then switched over, some of them, to heroin.”

At the same time, Banta-Green said heroin became more available, mainly low purity, black tar heroin from Mexico. The data from police drug evidence testing shows the largest increases in heroin use are among young people outside the large cities.

“The demographic and geographic issues that are going on in terms of younger users outside metropolitan areas are very similar to what we saw with methamphetamine a decade ago, it’s just that now we’re seeing prescription optiates and heroin.”

The number of pieces of police evidence that tested positive for heroin totaled 842 in 2007 and increased to 2,251 in 2012 statewide, according to Banta-Green’s data. The rise in heroin use is also concerning because of the risks of infectious disease, such as hepatitis, and overdose. He said about 70 percent of King County injection drug users have hepatitis-C.

According to Banta-Green, “2009 was actually the low point for heroin-involved deaths, at least in the King County area and it was the high point for prescription opiates. Since that time, they’ve gone in opposite directions, with prescription-type opiates coming down and heroin increasing in those deaths.”

Data gathered by Banta-Green showed that in 2012, 64 percent of people entering publicly funded treatment for the first time were heroin users between the ages of 18 and 29.

Banta-Green emphasized that heroin overdoses are preventable and can actually be reversed with a medication, naloxone, that paramedics have used for years.

Banta-Green is working on overdose training and intervention programs through StopOverdose.org and lobbying to get that drug in pharmacies, which can dispense the medication without a prescription. He said that people at risk of overdose can actually be prescribed the drug as well.

Crime figures for 2012 slow a slight decrease in heroin use, but treatment providers and help line staffers tell Banta-Green the calls keep coming with no sign of slowing down.

Click here to see the
full report on opiate trends.