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Jenny Bogart, 38, began using methamphetamine at age 14, then switched to heroin after seven years before returning to methamphetamine. She has had no drugs for more than a year.
Via Jenny Bogart
While fewer people in the United States started using heroin last year, the decline among young new-age 18 to 25-year-old heroin users was almost imperceptible – and this age group experienced a strong increased use of methamphetamine and marijuana. reported Friday.
The National Survey of Drugs and Health 2017 focuses on what they call these "young people in transition" because they consume more cigarettes, alcoholism and of heroin, and consume more cocaine, methamphetamine and LSD. older.
The report, published by the Addiction and Mental Health Services Administration, found a positive change for young people between the ages of 18 and 25: they use less prescription opioids. In 2015, SAMHSA estimated that 8.5% of people in this age group were misusing prescription opioids; which dropped to just over 7% in 2017.
The report helps government officials, health professionals, researchers and caregivers understand the extent of substance abuse and mental illness among different age groups nationally, nationally and local. Elinore McCance-Katz, an assistant secretary of SAMHSA, also helps to assess the need for treatment services and guide policy decisions.
There was more alarming news. The use of illicit drugs, including cocaine, marijuana and opioids among pregnant women, increased significantly between 2015 and 2017. About 7% of pregnant women reported using marijuana. Three percent said they used 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 people in recovery describe the predictable shift from heroin to methamphetamine.
With all the publicity surrounding deaths from heroin mixed with fentanyl, psychiatrist Sally Satel said that most addiction experts were waiting for the drug to go away – just as the crack disappeared there decades ago.
"I was waiting for that," says Satel, a drug treatment specialist. "That's how it works.
"People always want to change their mental state, so they are looking for what is cheap and what is available and the reputation of the drug."
Jim Beiting is CEO of Transitions, the largest drug processing and recovery organization in Northern Kentucky. He says that methamphetamine is "magnetic" for some who suffer from addiction.
"It's cheaper," he says, "it's more readily available, and the power is higher than before."
Elinore McCance-Katz, Assistant Secretary, Drug Treatment and Mental Health Services Administration, testifies in July at the Capitol.
Tom Williams, call CQ via AP
McCance-Katz, who worked in drug treatment in Rhode Island before joining the Trump administration, says that "often people will use both medications to lessen the undesirable effects of one drug on another."
A stimulant could help them "become euphoric," she says, and another drug – or alcohol – could keep them from feeling "fragile and paranoid".
Jenny Bogart says she began using methamphetamine at age 14 after a traumatic childhood in a small town in Wyoming. She moved to New York as an adult, she said, she was offered heroin and she was immediately hooked.
Heroin was her main drug for two years, she said. Then she returned to Wyoming and "went back into crystal meth plans."
Now she has been without drugs for a little over a year, she says.
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 ease the withdrawal or counterbalance the use of heroin," Bogart said.
The new report shows that there were 81,000 new heroin users in 2017, less than half of the 170,000 reported in 2016.
Other findings:
• Marijuana use among 12- to 17-year-olds was up from previous years, according to SAMHSA. Trends differed between youth and young adults, but marijuana use in both groups appeared to be associated with opioid use, heavy alcohol use, and major depressive episodes.
• 18 to 25 year olds had higher rates of mental illness. More than 5% of men and almost 10% of women in this group had serious mental disorders and 6% of men and 11% of women had a major depressive episode with severe impairment. Rates of thoughts or suicidal behaviors also increased significantly for the age group.
• The percentage of people with substance abuse disorders who receive treatment has increased from 10% to 14%.
Psychiatrist Sally Satel specializes in the treatment of addiction and mental health and is a residency researcher at the American Enterprise Institute Conservatory.
American Enterprise Institute
Yet, says McCance-Katz, few people who want treatment can get it.
If health care providers certified to deliver buprenorphine to treat opioid addiction saw as many patients as they could, said McCance-Katz, treatment would be enough for all patients.
The problem, she says, is that these doctors, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and other health care providers are not always located in communities where people are addicted. She says that "telehealth" – a virtual connection between health care providers and patients – is needed 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 Social Services, she says.
HHS has had a big boost to its budget for 2018 to expand treatment access by providing grants to states and communities, but McCance-Katz says the results may not show up for a while.
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Satel says that there is an urgent need for more facilities where people with addictions can detoxify, and a wider range of options, from the most intense supervision to the slightest.
"The treatment infrastructure is appalling," she says.
Satel says that there is little that the HHS can do to fight addiction without integrated social services. Treatment funded through the HHS does not currently include housing and vocational training, which fall under other federal agencies.
"Why would you stay clean if your prospects were still as dark as they were when you became addicted?" she asks.
If you're interested in connecting with online people who have overcome or are currently experiencing health issues mentioned in this story, join USA TODAY's "I Survived It" Facebook Support Group.
Copyright 2017 USATODAY.com
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