Texas County Sees Rise in Young Addicts, Violence Among Youth

El Paso County, Texas, is seeing a rise in young addicts and violence among youth. Experts believe that the twin trends are no coincidence.

Chilo Madrid, director of an El Paso drug treatment center, comments on the trends: "We are seeing younger and more violent addicts. It's not unusual to see an 18-year-old who has been addicted for three or four years, who's had two or three sexually transmitted diseases, who's belonged to two gangs and who's been shot at more than once."

Madrid estimates that approximately 20 percent of El Paso County's population is addicts, or approximately 150,000 of the 742,000 residents. A Mexican drug cartel just across the United States border, in Juarez, Mexico, makes drugs cheap and easy to obtain in El Paso.

According to Madrid, heroin addiction is especially prevalent in the area: "We do a lot of street research, and we know for a fact that we have 30,000 hard-core heroin users in El Paso, and a lot more people who use cocaine on the weekends.”

“When we started out in this field, a hit of heroin (a quarter gram) cost $25," Madrid said. "Now, people can get the same quantity for $2.50 a hit. The same is true for cocaine. A hit of cocaine is about two lines.

"They don't go to Juarez or to shooting galleries anymore. People get the drugs by texting on their cell phones. Whereas before, your heroin users were older, we're now seeing kids as young as 16 who are trying heroin and cocaine for the first time."

(Source: behaviorhealthcentral.com)

Labels: addiction, cocaine, heroin, violence

posted by Aspen Education Group @ 8:22 AM