Last year, far fewer people started to consume heroin, but the decline in young heroin users from 18 to 25 years was almost imperceptible and this age group has also seen a sharp increase in the use of methamphetamine and marijuana. .

The National Survey of Drugs and Health 2017 focuses on what they call these "young people in transition" because they consume more cigarettes, alcoholism, of heroin and consume more cocaine, methamphetamine and LSD.

The report, published by the Administration of Addiction and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA), found a positive change in 18- to 25-year-olds: they use less prescription opioids. In 2015, SAMHSA estimated that 8.5% of people of this age had used prescription opioids, but this figure dropped to just over 7% in 2017.

The report helps identify the extent of substance abuse and mental illness among different age groups at the national level, by state and in more local areas. Elinore McCance-Katz, psychiatric secretary and assistant secretary of SAMHSA, also stressed the need for treatment services and guided policy decisions.

There was more alarming news. According to the report, the use of illicit drugs, including cocaine, marijuana and opioids among pregnant women, has increased significantly between 2015 and 2017. About 7% of pregnant women reported using marijuana, and about 3% said they eat it daily.

McCance-Katz says marijuana use is linked to problems with fetal growth, premature births, stillbirths, hyperactivity and cognition in newborns.

Those who have treated people with substance abuse problems and recovering people describe a predictable heroin breakthrough with methamphetamine.

With all the publicity surrounding deaths from heroin mixed with fentanyl, psychiatrist Sally Satel says most drug addiction experts expect the drug to go away – while crack has disappeared decades ago.

"I was waiting for that," says Satel, a drug treatment specialist. "That's how it works."

Jim Beiting, CEO of Transitions, the largest drug treatment and recovery organization in northern Kentucky, says meth is also "magnetic" for some addicts.

"It's cheaper. It's more readily available (and) than the activity is higher than before," he says.

The report, published by the Administration of Addiction and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA), found a positive change in 18- to 25-year-olds: they use less prescription opioids. In 2015, SAMHSA estimated that 8.5% of people of this age had used prescription opioids, but this figure dropped to just over 7% in 2017.

The report helps identify the extent of substance abuse and mental illness among different age groups at the national level, by state and in more local areas. Elinore McCance-Katz, psychiatric secretary and assistant secretary of SAMHSA, also stressed the need for treatment services and guided policy decisions.

There was more alarming news. According to the report, the use of illicit drugs, including cocaine, marijuana and opioids among pregnant women, has increased significantly between 2015 and 2017. About 7% of pregnant women reported using marijuana, and about 3% said they eat it daily.

McCance-Katz says marijuana use is linked to problems with fetal growth, premature births, stillbirths, hyperactivity and cognition in newborns.

Those who have treated people with substance abuse problems and recovering people describe a predictable heroin breakthrough with methamphetamine.

With all the publicity surrounding deaths from heroin mixed with fentenyl, psychiatrist Sally Satel says that most addiction experts are waiting for the drug to go away – just as crack has disappeared there has decades.

"I was waiting for that," says Satel, a drug treatment specialist. "That's how it works."

Jim Beiting, CEO of Transitions, the largest drug treatment and recovery organization in northern Kentucky, says meth is also "magnetic" for some addicts.

"It's cheaper. It's more readily available (and) than the activity is higher than before," he says.

McCance-Katz, who worked in drug treatment in Rhode Island before joining the administration, says that "often people use both medications to reduce the undesirable effects of one drug on the other."

A stimulant could help them "become euphoric", and another drug – or alcohol – could be used to keep them from feeling "fragile and paranoid," she says.

After a traumatic childhood in a small Wyoming town, Jenny Bogart began taking methamphetamine for seven years at the age of 14.

Heroin became the drug she sought the most for two years. Yet, after returning to Wyoming at one point, she "went back to methamphetamine."

She has been without drugs for a little over a year, she said.

More: Naloxone can reverse opioid overdoses, but does the drug belong to elementary schools?

"I think that a heroin user would turn to methamphetamine to facilitate the withdrawal or counterbalance the use of heroin," Bogart says.

The new report indicates that the number of new heroin users in 2016 was over 170,000, more than double the 81,000 new users in 2017.

Other findings:

• Marijuana use among 12- to 17-year-olds has increased from all previous years, according to SAMHSA. Use patterns differed among youth and young adults, but marijuana use in both groups appeared to be associated with opioid use, high alcohol consumption, and depressive episodes. major, according to the agency.

• People aged 18 to 25 had higher rates of serious mental illness and what is known as a "major depressive episode with a severe impairment". More than 5% of men and almost 10% of women in this group had serious mental disorders. In 2017, 6% of men and 11% of women had a major depressive episode with severe impairment. Rates of thoughts or suicidal behaviors age group, said SAMHSA.

• The percentage of people with substance use disorders who receive treatment has jumped significantly from 10% to 14%, according to SAMHSA. This was especially evident for opioid addicts, including heroin.

Psychiatrist Sally Satel specializes in the treatment of addiction and mental health and is a residency researcher at the American Enterprise Institute Conservatory. (Photo: American Enterprise Institute)

Still, few people who want treatment can have one, says McCance-Katz.

If health care providers certified to deliver buprenorphine – a drug used to treat opioid addiction – have seen as many patients as they had the capacity, McCance-Katz says that there would be enough treatment for all.

The big problem, though, is that these doctors, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and other health care providers are not necessarily the ones fighting addiction, she says. That's why she says that "telehealth" – virtual connection to health care providers – is needed to give access to people living in more remote or rural areas.

SAMHSA is expanding training and technical assistance and is implementing mental health programs in each of the 10 regions of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), she says.

HHS has had a big boost to its 2018 budget to expand treatment access through grants to states and communities, but results may not appear for some time.

More: Watch Mac Miller: fans remember the rapper in the park, he named his first album after

"It takes time for these things to reflect," says McCance-Katz.

Satel says that there is an urgent need for more places where people with addictions can detoxify, as well as more institutions offering treatment that goes from the most intense surveillance to the slightest.

"The treatment infrastructure is appalling," she says.

End-of-year data from the Cincinnati Addiction Treatment Center showed a decline in opioid use as the main drug in 76% of patients in 2017, compared to 70% in 2018.

Despite the decline in prescription opioid use and new heroin addicts in the SAMHSA report, opioids remain the most used drug among clients, said center director Sandra Kuehn.

Nearly one-third of the center's 2,176 patients in fiscal 2018 were between the ages of 18 and 25, although more patients were between 31 and 45 years old.

Jacob Beuerlein, Residential Supervisor and Advisor at the Addiction Treatment Center, said that two of his current five clients use methamphetamine and have gone through it because of the low cost. He was told that $ 20 could "get me up the week," says Beurerlein.

They also say that the benefit is immediate and lasting euphoria and what they perceive as "increased concentration," he said.

Most of the methamphetamines currently used are manufactured in Mexico rather than in the United States, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force has seen an influx of methamphetamine-related investigations, about half of which in 2017 was linked to methamphetamine.

"People still want to change their mental state," says Satel. "So they are looking for what is cheap and what is available and the reputation of the drug."

There is also little that HHS can do to address addiction without integrated social services, says Satel.

Treatment funded through HHS does not currently address housing and vocational training, which is the responsibility of other federal agencies.

"Why would you stay clean if your prospects were still as dark as when you became addicted?" she asks.

Read or share this story: https://usat.ly/2xj34xI