US heroin users: typically white, suburban women

[bit_pattern]

The full study here: http://archpsyc.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1874575

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http://theconversation.com/us-heroin-users-typically-white-suburban-women-27327

There has been a demographic shift in American heroin users over the past 50 years, with the average user more likely to be a 23-year-old, white, suburban female than the member of an inner-city minority group as indicated by previous studies.

Washington University and Nova Southeastern University researchers used survey data from almost 2,800 patients currently undergoing treatment for heroin abuse in the US. It revealed that by 2010, 75% of users were found to live in “less urban” areas, half were female and as many as 90% of new users were white.

The profile shift is thought to be associated to the abuse of prescription narcotics, such as oxycodone (OxyContin), hydrocodone (Vicodin) and fentanyl (Duragesic), as a handful of addicts after 2000 switched to heroin abuse when unable to afford prescribed medications.

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

The new "mother's little helper"?

 

[Crankinit]

half were female

Then how is the typical user a 'woman' if suburban white heroin use is divided equally along gender lines.

The new "mother's little helper"?

I doubt it, going of the other ''heroin is now a rich white people problem, do something about it! 'articles, most of them seem to be in the 18 - 30 category, hardly your 60's housewife.

Part of this increase in heroin use and apparent migration to a new class of users appears to be due to the coincidental increase in the abuse of prescription opioids over the last 20 years,11,12,20- 23 arguably accelerated by the release of OxyContin in the mid-1990s,24,25 which made large quantities of oxycodone hydrochloride readily available for inhalation and intravenous injection. Given that prescription opioids are legal, are prescribed by a physician, and are thus considered trustworthy and predictable (eg, the dose is clearly specified on a distinctive tablet or pill), many users viewed these drugs as safer to use than other illicit substances.26,27 However, there is now growing evidence that some prescription opioid abusers, particularly those who inhale or inject their drugs, graduate or shift to heroin,12,21,24,25,28- 33 at least in part because it has become more accessible and far less expensive than prescription opioids.12,28,33- 37 Thus, one could assume that more recent users of heroin would share more demographic features with today’s prescription opioid abusers than with those individuals who initiated their heroin use 40 to 50 years ago.

I like that they neglect to mention the role the ''crackdown'' on pharm supply and the new OP's played in sending pharm addicts scurrying for heroin.