The number of white men arrested for using opiate prescription drugs has increased nearly 20 percent over the last year, according to a study by ASU’s Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety.
The study released earlier this month shows trends among Maricopa arrestees who test positive for opiates. The drugs can include heroin, Vicodin, OxyContin, codeine and Demerol. The center interviewed recently-arrested men in Maricopa county and asked them a series of questions that involved types of drugs used, availability of the drug, and number of times taken. The men were then given a drug test, which they agreed to.
Charles Katz, ASU associate professor of criminal justice and investigator for the Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety, led the study.
“We interviewed recently -booked arrestees (in Maricopa county) and conducted a urinalysis at the conclusion to examine whether or not things are changing in the population,” he said.
Over the past decade opiate use has been hovering between 1 and 4 percent depending on a variety of factors, like ethnicity, gender and age has been below 5 percent, he said.
“Over the past year we’ve seen it escalate up to 20 percent among white males, which suggests use patterns may be increasing,” he said. “We have more than one in every five arrestees testing positive for opiates.”
In the past, the numbers were more like one in every 400, he said.
Though the studies strictly show arrestee statistics, prescription drug use has affected some ASU students.
While he was never arrested for prescription drug abuse, an ASU interdisciplinary studies junior, who withheld his name for fear of his professors finding out, has used and sold prescription drugs in the past.
“I think there’s three main classes of prescription drugs: anti-anxiety, stimulants and opiates,” he said. “During finals time, the stimulants get much more popular.”
Stimulants can include Adderall, a psychostimulant used to increase alertness and cognitive activity while decreasing fatigue; Ritalin, a treatment for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder; and Vyvanse, another treatment for ADHD.
These drugs have been used by students to keep them awake.
“More than 50 percent of people I know have used or abused — however you look at it — some sort of prescription medication,” he said.
The student said he used drugs because he wasn’t at good time in his life.
“A bunch of stuff had happened to me, it was not a good time in my life,” he said. “The only time I felt truly happy was when I took pain killers like OxyContin.”
Being able to mask it well, his friends didn’t suspect he was abusing, he said.
“No one was on to me—I was getting straight A’s in school,” he said.
He never developed an addiction, the student said.
Some people develop addictions with prescription medication and will purchase them multiple times a week, he said.
“Withdrawals can get horrible if you’re way addicted to opiates,” he said.
Prescriptions are exchanged openly among groups of people, he said.
“Everywhere I went people were doing pills,” the junior said.
For example, if one person has a prescription for a drug, they could sell each pill individually, or just hand out the drugs to friends.
“You buy a drug off the street, you really don’t know what it is. You buy a pill, you pretty much know it’s a pill,” he said. “You can Google the imprint and pretty much know what it is. The FDA doesn’t mess around.”
He said there is wide range of people who purchase pills.
“Depending on the person, pills can lead to the road of addiction,” he said.
Reach the reporter at mmbarke1@asu.edu
