From the National Institute on Drug Abuse for Teens
by Sarah Bellum
More and more young people are using heroin these days, and sometimes they start using it because they’ve gotten addicted to prescription painkillers.
One study showed that people who abuse painkillers like OxyContin are 19 times more likely to start using heroin. The study also found that 8 out of 10 people who started using heroin abused painkillers first.