LETTERS TO THE ED: Opiate Addiction Endangers Our Youth

 

While addiction to opiate-based prescription painkillers and their illegal street cousin, heroin has spread to all demographic and age groups, teenagers and young adults are particularly at risk.

 

The teenage years are a \”critical window of vulnerability for substance abuse disorders,\” according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, \”because the brain is still developing and still malleable\”. The parts of the brain that are attracted to drug use mature before the parts of the brain that are responsible for making sound, non-impulsive decisions. People who begin their drug use in the teenage years are much more likely to become addicted and abuse drugs, including opiates, as adults.