Heroin

Regulations designed to make it more difficult to abuse prescription painkillers are leading to an increase in heroin addiction, MSNBC reports.

Heroin-dependent adults are more sensitive to pain than people who do not use illicit drugs, according to a new study that finds their sensitivity does not decrease even when they are treated with methadone or buprenorphine.

Manipulating memories of people formerly addicted to drugs may help them avoid relapse, a new study suggests.

Heroin use has increased so much in Ohio that users say it is “falling out of the sky,” according to a new report by state health officials. Children as young as 13 are starting to use the drug, they said.

Treating long-term heroin users with medically prescribed heroin is more cost-effective than methadone, a new study suggests.

Authorities in Iowa say heroin is making a comeback in the state. The Associated Press reports people have switched to heroin from OxyContin, which is now difficult to obtain.

Interest is growing in Good Samaritan laws aimed at saving lives by encouraging people who witness drug overdoses to call 911. But much is not yet known about the laws’ impact on drug users, bystanders, paramedics and police.

Young people who begin using heroin generally are unaware of the drug’s dangerous effects, according to a new study.

Experts in the Chicago area say they are seeing more people facing drug addiction who are white, suburban and upper-middle class.

A needle exchange program in Fresno, California, is continuing to run after county supervisors decided not to legalize the operation.

A new study suggests that abuse of prescription opioids may be a first step on the path toward misuse of heroin and other injected drugs.

A new vaccine shows promise in heroin addiction treatment, a study in rats suggests.

Injection drug users have higher rates of abuse and dependence and have a greater need for substance abuse treatment compared with non-injecting drug users, a new study suggests.

Police in Charlotte, NC report a rise in the use of “black tar” heroin, a highly addictive drug that appears to be especially popular among young users in affluent neighborhoods.

Now that OxyContin has been reformulated to make the opioid harder to snort, inject or chew, The New York Times reports that demand for other narcotics has increased.

The abuse of prescription drugs among teens is growing in New Jersey and is leading to heroin addiction, experts testified at a state hearing this week.

Researchers at the University of Washington found that fatal overdoses in the Seattle area, involving prescription-type opiates, declined for the first time in a decade, from 161 in 2009 to 130 in 2010, though they remain the most common drug type involved in overdose deaths.

Two U.S. senators are calling on the federal government to shut down a website that sells illegal drugs using layers of secrecy to avoid detection. The website sells drugs including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines.

The Canadian Supreme Court will consider the legality of North America’s only government-sanctioned facility that medically supervises the injection of illegal drugs. On Thursday, the court is scheduled to hear a case that pits its founders against the government, which says the facility promotes drug abuse.

The use of heroin and other injectable drugs are contributing to the rise in hepatitis C infections among white youth in Massachusetts, according to a report by the state’s Department of Public Health.

An increase in heroin use in Ohio in the past six months is due partly to the rise in addiction to opioid medication, according to a new report by the Ohio Department of Drug and Alcohol Addiction Services. The report says that people who become addicted to opioids may turn to heroin when they can no longer afford the pills.

In the second half of his interview with Join Together, Nic Sheff, author of the new memoir We All Fall Down, discusses what treatment and recovery mean to him.

Join Together sits down with Nic Sheff, author of the new memoir We All Fall Down, to discuss his personal journey of recovery from substance abuse.