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r Town Not iin Ou n As the parent of a teenager, the thought of drugs in my son's life is terrifying. When my friend Mark Isaak told me he had seen a spike in the number of young adults seeking help to break heroin addiction at his outpatient rehab center in Calimesa, I asked him to share more information with you. It's not happy news, but if this article helps one family identify, face, and treat a drug problem, then it is a good thing and, hopefully, will lead to a happy ending. We hear it all the time living in a small town in southern California, "That never happens in our town." We feel some how that living in the suburbs, our community is immune to problems such as illegal drug use and all that comes with people addicted to controlled substances. With the change in state laws and the consent of local governments, the use of marijuana has become more and more common. We all know someone with a card from a doctor giving them permission to use marijuana for one ailment or another. But that's a topic for another time. What most people in our community do not seem to know is that there has been a sharp increase in the use of heroin across the nation and even here in town. According to SAMHSA (the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), an agency within the U.S. department of Health and Human Services, states that nationally the number of Americans who reported that they used heroin in the past 12 months rose from 373,000 in 2007 to 620,000 in 2011. During the same period, the number of people who reported heroin addiction in the past 12 months increased from 179,000 to 369,000. In addition, the number of people who started using heroin for the first time in the past 12 months climbed from 106,000 to 178,000. So we have all heard about the drug heroin, but few of us 12 OUR YUCAIPA | OCTOBER 2013 know much about it. Here are some facts that might help you put this problem into perspective. Heroin is a powerful semisynthetic opiate derived from morphine most often used as a recreational drug. Heroin is more powerful than most opioid analgesics because it crosses the blood-brain barrier more rapidly. Use of heroin leads quickly to dependence and has a high potential for addiction. Heroin is known to cause "blissful apathy" along with its painkilling effects. Heroin was first synthesized from morphine in 1874. Until 1910, heroin was marketed as a non-addictive cough suppressant and substitute for morphine. The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act passed in 1914 was meant to control the sale of heroin and other opiates. Heroin could be prescribed for medical purposes until 1924, when Congress banned the sale, import or manufacturing of heroin in the U.S. Most of the heroin consumed in America comes from Columbia, Mexico, Canada, Afghanistan and China. Other top-producing countries include Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. Heroin can be taken orally, snorted, smoked or injected. Some users inhale the vapors when it is heated. Heroin is often "cut" with other substances to dilute it or add bulk. A mixture of heroin and cocaine, known on the street as a "speedball," can be fatal. A heroin/fentanyl mix caused an outbreak of overdoses in several American cities in 2006.