Prescription Drug Program and Rehab

In most cases heroin is ingested one of two ways — either by injection or inhalation. Though a lot of users begin by inhaling the drug, most switch to injection later in their lives.

More effective heroin abuse treatments and prevention methods have been necessitated by the fact that diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis are easily transmitted to the sharing of syringes.Three interesting statistics have been discovered by virtue of admissions to treatment centers nationwide. The first stat is that 95% of all users either inhaled (33 percent) or injected (62 percent) heroin. Secondly, of all the admissions that inhaled the drug, 45% were Black, while 58% of the admissions who injected it were Caucasian. Finally, the admissions of those who injected the drug versus inhaling it were more likely to be younger than 25 years old, but were also more likely to be over the age of 45.

Heroin accounted for 15% of all admissions to treatment centers, and 62% of those admitted were injecting the drug, 33% were inhaling, 2% were smoking it, 2% ingested it orally, and 1% ingested it by other means. There was no major differentiation between the sexes when it came to the ingestion of the drug.

People who injected the drug were more likely to be from the Western United States than those who inhaled it. But it was more likely that those who inhaled the drug were from the Eastern US. Listed below are the breakdowns by referral sources of all the admissions who inhaled the drug versus all those who injected it:

Inhalation Injection
Self-admission 59% 65%
Criminal Justice 16% 12%
Treatment Provider 13% 13%
Other Health Provider 5% 4%
Other/Misc. 7% 6%

On a final note, there were no significant differences in frequency of use between those admissions that inhaled the drug versus those that injected it. Roughly 81% of both groups reported that they used the drug on a daily basis.

Posted in: Heroin Addiction