Heroin Hits the Suburbs Hard Amid Wave of Drug Abuse by Teens and 20-Somethings

Heroin Hits the Suburbs Hard Amid Wave of Drug Abuse by Teens and 20-Somethings

By Jessica Calefati
Posted December 5, 2008

When the vomiting, tremors, and chills she felt each morning became overwhelming, Jessica Polmann started selling her body to finance her heroin addiction and halt the debilitating physical symptoms of withdrawal. The petite, blond cheerleader, who made the honor roll before she started doing heroin at age 13, received $60 and some cigarettes each time she had sex with a man in his 50s who lived near her suburban New Jersey home. Jessica also traded sex for drugs with her dealers and male friends if they had extra bags of dope.

Addicted to Heroin at 13: Jessica Polmann
Drug Abuse's Young Face: Kristen, 18
Heroin Abuse's Young Face: Sean O'Conner, 19

She even introduced her friends and boyfriend to heroin to expand the pool of people she could call on to pick up more drugs. "I was," she says now, "really disgusting."
Polmann, now 18, is just one in a wave of teens and 20-somethings in suburbs across the Northeast who are becoming addicted to and dying from abuse of heroin and prescription opiates like OxyContin. Once prevalent mostly in big cities, heroin has been spreading out to smaller towns in New England and the mid-Atlantic as the drug is becoming more widely available in a highly pure, inexpensive form that can be snorted. Many of these young addicts get started on prescription drugs, move on to cheap heroin that can be snorted, and end up injecting it for a more potent high. Either way, the effects have been deadly. In Massachusetts, for example, the number of opiate-related deaths, which include overdoses and fatal drug interactions, among people ages 13 to 30 was five times as great in 2006 as it was in 1997. And according to drug intelligence, law enforcement, and treatment officials at both the federal and state level, the trend has not yet shown signs of reversing or slowing down

How is Cocaine Abused?

How is Cocaine Abused?

Three routes of administration are commonly used for cocaine: snorting, injecting, and smoking. Snorting is the process of inhaling cocaine powder through the nose, where it is absorbed into the bloodstream through the nasal tissues. Injecting is the use of a needle to release the drug directly into the bloodstream. Smoking involves inhaling cocaine vapor or smoke into the lungs, where absorption into the bloodstream is as rapid as by injection. All three methods of cocaine abuse can lead to addiction and other severe health problems, including increasing the risk of contracting HIV and infectious diseases.

The intensity and duration of cocaine’s effects, which include increased energy, reduced fatigue, and mental alertness, depend on the route of drug administration. The faster cocaine is absorbed into the bloodstream and delivered to the brain, the more intense the high. Injecting or smoking cocaine produces a quicker, stronger high than snorting. On the other hand, faster absorption usually means shorter duration of action. The high from snorting cocaine may last 15 to 30 minutes, but the high from smoking may last only 5 to 10 minutes. In order to sustain the high, a cocaine abuser has to administer the drug again. For this reason, cocaine is sometimes abused in binges—taken repeatedly within a relatively short period of time, at increasingly high doses.

Article by http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/cocaine.html

Are Policies Valuable?

The Orange County Survey Showed relative consistency on the question of whether maintaining a drug-free workplace benefits company operations. Among all respondents, including those in companies without drug-free workplace policies, 71.4% said drug-free workplaces have a highly positive effect on productivity, with 80% saying they have a highly positive effect on safety.

Respondents in companies that have a drug-free workplace policy said their organization is not always particularly vocal about such policies. Only 43.8% of these respondents said their company specifics its drug-free workplace status in recruitment advertising.

Companies also showed wide differences in how they respond when a tested employee submits a positive screen. Slightly more than half of respondents in companies with drug-free workplace policies said their companies terminate the employment of workers who test positive for illicit drugs. Just under one-third said their companies refer employees testing positive for professional assistance, with about the same percentage saying their company has an EAP. The survey did not analyze responses by industry group, Brooks says.-

Article from Addiction Professional

Vol. 6, No.3By

Gary A. Enos, Editor

KD Consulting Corporation

Please visit out website at www.kdconsulting.org to learn more about an intervention and what to do look for if you suspect someone you love is using drugs or alcohol. Please call today if you need help finding a solution. You can call toll-free 1-866-631-0026. We are here to help.

KD Consulting Corporation
A Division of www.lifelineintervention.com

KD Consulting Corporation

Please visit our website at www.kdconsulting.org to learn more about an intervention, transporting, in-service we offer to treatment programs and patients. Please take a moment to review our website. If you have any questions about the services we offer please contact us at 1-866-631-0026. We are here help.

KD Consulting Corporation
A Division of Lifelineintervention.com

KD Consulting Corporation

KD CONSULTING CORPORATION
A DIVISION OF www.lifelineintervention.com

KD Consulting Corporation offers interventions, transporting, and life coaching to helping families and their loved ones from the disease of addiction. KD Consulting is helping educate families about an intervention process and steps to take to helping their loved ones from the path of destruction. KD Consulting Corporation is helping spread the word that there is another way rather than waiting for an addict to hit "rock bottom". If you know someone who needs help please call us toll-free 1-866-631-0026. We are here to help.

Jenny Sanders

KD Consulting Corporation

Most addicts do not know where to turn once they have entered a path which draws them further more into their addiction. Ususally an addict is dependent on the their drug of choice. We can take the path that helps us and guides us to another without the use of drugs and alcohol or we can continue the path that harms us with the drug abuse. Most addicts want a way out, but have no other choice. They are so use to living a path that is destructive with chaos that this is the only way to live. Most addicts believe this is the only way. If you know someone who is battling a drug addiction and needs help please call 1-866-631-0026. We are here to help you find a solution for you loved one. We are here helping families.

Please visit our website www.kdconsulting.org.