Some good news from the front lines of the heroin crisis: Half as many people tried heroin for the first time in 2017 as in 2016. That鈥檚 according to data released Friday from the .
鈥淭his is what we were hoping for,鈥 said , who directs the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. 鈥淚t tells us that we are getting the word out to the American people of the risks of heroin,鈥 especially when the drug is tainted with additional powerful opioids, fentanyl or carfentanil.
The survey found that marijuana use, however, increased in 2017, especially among pregnant women and young adults. McCance-Katz said the increase was likely linked to the growing number of states that have legalized marijuana and the misperception that marijuana is harmless.
McCance-Katz attributed the drop in new heroin users to increased government funding for prevention and public messaging on the local, state and federal levels.
Dr. David Kan, president of the California Society of Addiction Medicine, was surprised by the heroin finding. 鈥淭his report seems to run counter to the common wisdom that everyone is migrating from prescription medications to heroin,鈥 he said. Still, the number of drug overdose deaths continued to climb to a staggering 72,000 in 2017, with the sharpest increase among people who used fentanyl or other synthetic opioids. 鈥淎ll it takes is one exposure to fentanyl to die,鈥 Kan said.
The survey also found a small increase in the number of people with substance use disorders who receive specialty treatment, particularly heroin and opioid users. Nonetheless, 92 percent of people with substance use disorders do not receive it.
鈥淚t鈥檚 unacceptable,鈥 said Greg Williams, executive vice president of Facing Addiction, a nonprofit group that advocates for people struggling with substance use disorders. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had a 90 percent treatment gap in America for the two decades we鈥檝e been tracking it, and we have not been able to close it.鈥 Despite all the news coverage of the drug crisis, he said, 鈥渢he response has been woefully inadequate.鈥
As for marijuana, it appears that public health messaging has not been as effective as marketing efforts by the burgeoning cannabis industry. 鈥淲hen you have an industry that does nothing but blanket our society with messages about the medicinal value of marijuana, people get the idea this is a safe substance to use. And that鈥檚 not true,鈥 said McCance-Katz.
Cannabis does appear to have medical benefits 鈥 in June, for example, the first cannabinoid-derived medication for the treatment of epilepsy. But McCance-Katz said there is already ample evidence that the drug can pose serious health risks, particularly for teenagers, young adults and pregnant women.
The survey found that from 2015 to 2017 the percentage of pregnant women who reported marijuana use more than doubled, to 7.1 percent. Often, they use it to combat nausea and pain, believing it is safer than the FDA-approved drugs prescribed by their doctors. Mounting evidence, however, suggests that marijuana can cause preterm birth and long-term neurological problems in the babies of mothers who use it during pregnancy.
鈥淚鈥檓 going to talk about it every chance I get,鈥 said McCance-Katz. 鈥淎mericans have the right to know that marijuana has risks.鈥
