Teen Heroin Use in Suburbs on the Rise

Mar 29, 2010

Teens across the country—honor students and athletes, some not even old enough to drive—are getting addicted, overdosing, and dying as heroin use in the suburbs skyrockets. Jeffrey Veatch, whose teenage son overdosed and died, warns other parents: "The first reaction parents have—'I would never let my kids do this, this would never happen in my house.’ But we've learned a lot since then about substances and what's available." The explosion of heroin in suburban America is the plan of drug lords from Mexico and Columbia, who market heroin with new, sophisticated techniques. Packets of heroin are now stamped with popular brand names, or marketed using blockbuster movies aimed at young people, like the Twilight series. Dealers even give heroin away for free at first, and then sell it cheap—as little as $5 for a small bag of heroin—once the teens are addicted. "It's come out from the shadows,” says DEA Agent Bradley Cheek. “People need to realize it's not confined to the alleyways and dark, dingy rooms, the heroin dens. It's here.”