Thinkage

Over the past 50 years, heroin and opioid addiction has drastically shifted its target demographic. On Wednesday, JAMA Psychiatry published the results of a study called "The Changing Face of Heroin Use in the United States; A Retrospective Analysis of the Past 50 Years." In it, the researchers determined that 90% of heroin users are white men and women.  According to the study, the median age of male users used to be around 16 years old, but the current median age for men and women now is around 23 years old. Three-quarters of these current users were first introduced to heroin by way of prescription opiates like Oxycontin. That means that expensive prescription drugs are serving as a gateway drug for young millennials living in suburbia trying to find an inexpensive but dangerous alternative: heroin.  --Jenna Kagel, The Average Heroin Addict Is Not Who You Think It Is