Teens who begin using opioid painkillers may eventually switch to heroin as their tolerance for opioids grows. This switch is correlated with the fact that heroin is much stronger and is much cheaper than opioid pills. Many teens don’t even know they are taking heroin as the white heroin powder looks similar to popular teen drugs such as Vicodin or Ecstasy. Once teens are exposed to heroin they can’t go back to prescription pills and feel the same high.
Learn more about teen heroin use and addiction with these related articles.