Examining the Nexus between Prescription Opioid and Heroin Abuse

ABSTRACT

Opioid use has long been a problem in the United States and heroin has shown to be particularly dangerous. Whereas the profile of heroin users changed throughout the 1900s, prior to the 1990s, most users were city-dwellers living on the fringes of the law. However, as the push began to make prescription opioids more available, this shift in policy seemingly resulted in a shift of the common profile of heroin users. We explore the nexus between prescription opioid and heroin abuse via in-depth interviews with 30 former drug users residing in a women’s halfway house in the Southern United States.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Illandra Denysschen, Jonathan Dillingham, and Nickolas Gross for assistance with previous drafts of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this study was provided by the National Science Foundation via the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program (NSF Award # 1261322 and 1004953).

Notes on contributors

Kent R. Kerley

KENT R. KERLEY, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Texas at Arlington. Dr. Kerley’s primary research interests include corrections, religiosity, and drug careers. His research has appeared in top journals such as Aggression and Violent Behavior, Deviant Behavior, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Justice Quarterly, Social Forces, and Social Problems. He is author of Religious Faith in Correctional Contexts (2014), Current Studies in the Sociology of Religion (2015), Encyclopedia of Corrections (2017), and Finding Freedom in Confinement: The Role of Religion in Prison Life (2018).

Megan Webb

MEGAN WEBB is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at the University of California Riverside, where she specializes in Criminology. Her research interests include drug use and identity, criminal decision making, offender re-entry, and long-term personal effects of imprisonment.

O. Hayden Griffin

O. HAYDEN GRIFFIN, III, Ph.D., J.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His research interests are drug policy, law & society, and corrections. His research has been published in Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Criminal Justice and Behavior, and International Journal of Drug Policy.