Teens across the U.S. are experimenting less with prescription painkillers, cutting the rate of youth opioid use by nearly 50 percent over the last 12 years.
The opioid epidemic currently gripping the U.S. is wreaking far less havoc among teens, who are increasingly moving away from prescription drugs. Opioid use other than heroin over a 12-month period reached a high of 9.5 percent among high school seniors in 2004, and currently sits at 4.8 percent. The drop is not causing increased heroin use among teens still in high school, something that researchers part of the annual Monitoring the Future survey called “remarkable,” reports U.S. News and World Report.
Experts in opioid addiction are urging caution, however, due to the disturbing usage figures among the rest of the population. A record 33,000 people died from opioid overdoses in 2015 and the problem only seems to be accelerating. Health officials revealed Dec. 8 that for the first time ever, there were more deaths related to heroin than gun homicides or suicides in 2015.
Many researchers note that severe opioid addictions do not normally fully develop until the early 20s, stressing the need to evaluate long term trends. Others point out that many teens involved with prescription drug abuse or heroin are no longer in school or may be in prison.
“The kids who are involved with drugs that heavily aren’t still in school filling out that survey,” Caleb Banta-Green, lead drug abuse scientist at the University of Washington, told U.S. News and World Report.
The survey notes the need for doctors to reduce the amount of prescription painkillers they prescribe. Roughly 40 percent of people abusing narcotics said it began with a prescription. Many people who overdose on substances like heroin began with a dependence on prescription painkillers, but switched after building high tolerances that made them too expensive.
Heroin deaths contributed to the first drop in U.S. life expectancy since 1993. Opioid fatalities also eclipsed death from motor vehicle accidents in 2015. The substance currently accounts for roughly 80 percent of drug fatalities. The U.S. suffered the deadliest year on record for fatal drug overdoses, which claimed 52,404 lives in 2015.
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