What you need to know about teens and heroin use in Massachusetts

Living in a small quiet town does not protect teens from being exposed to drugs like heroin.

Heroin doesn’t have to be injected, it can be snorted or smoked and is often first used under a street name like H, smack, or dope and can be purchased for as little as $10 a bag. Upton teens are not excluded from the Massachusetts  statistics which show a rise in heroin use.

Most individuals start with taking pills (oxycodone). They take a pill at a party and don’t think its a big deal. The same thought process goes with snorting heroin; individuals don’t think it’s a big deal to snort heroin but just after a few times they find themselves chasing that first high.

The state department of public health reports that Statewide opioid-related deaths, which include overdoses of heroin and prescription drugs, nearly doubled between 2000 and 2011, rising from 363 to 642. 

Massachusetts ranks first in the country for heroin overdose but ranks last in the country for the amount of drug related arrests. An individual who lives on the South Shore of Massachusetts is ten times more likely to die of a heroin overdose than anywhere else in the country. – source PNN documentary included.

Concerned students who attend Plymouth North High School put together a documentary which includes interviews with a local drug dealer, a police officer who talks about restrictions placed on Massachusetts Officers, and a First Justice from Plymouth District Court. The students did an amazing job and this is a must watch video for all parents.

Studies have shown a strong relationship where parents can discuss drug abuse and its dangers was a key factor in deterring teens from using drugs.

Click the watch vimeo button below to watch the Plymouth North High School documentary.