Heroin Addiction Trends In 1995

Heroin addiction trends continue to slighty increase in many cities. 

Health and law enforcement indicator data now confirm previous field reports of three heroin-using cohorts: a small, but growing number of young relatively recent initiates (particularly in Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Newark, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, and Texas); crack users who are starting to combine their crack with heroin; and another heroin addiciton trend consists of aging heroinn addicts who are switching to intranasal use and, in some cases, to smoking.

An increase in smoking heroin is reported in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The general trend appears to be a continued shift from injection to intranasal use in the East and parts of the Midwest, where lower priced, higher quality heroin remains readily available. In Atlanta and Philadelphia, however, some relatively new heroin users have begun shifting from intranasal use to injection. There is growing concern that a similar change in route of heroin administration with those suffering from heroin addiction may occur in other areas with recent initiates as they no longer get the desired effect via snorting or smoking.

Information released by the National Institute on Drug Abuse

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