The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) estimates that 379,000 Americans aged 12 or older used heroin in 2005, including 108,000 who used the drug for the first time. Routes of administration for heroin include inhalation, injection, smoking, and other means such as oral ingestion. Prior DASIS reports indicated increased inhalation among primary heroin admissions to substance abuse treatment during the 1990s, but also suggested that users may have progressed from inhalation to injection during that time. Similarly, this report shows a trend toward inhalation versus injection, although the proportion of users who inhaled the drug has been fairly stable since 2001, at about one third.
Trends in heroin addiction treatment admissions can be monitored with the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), an annual compilation of data on the demographic characteristics and substance abuse problems of those admitted to substance abuse treatment, primarily at facilities that receive some public funding. TEDS records represent admissions rather than individuals, as a person may be admitted to treatment more than once during a single year. This report compares trends in primary heroin inhalation and injection admissions between 1995 and 2005.
Annual admissions to substance abuse treatment for primary heroin abuse increased from 228,000 in 1995 to 254,000 in 2005; however, the proportion of primary heroin admissions remained steady at about 14 to 15 percent of all admissions. Between 1995 and 2005, inhalation and injection accounted for at least 94 percent of annual primary heroin admissions.
In every year from 1995 to 2005, most TEDS admissions for primary heroin addiction injected the drug. However, the proportion of primary heroin admissions who injected the drug declined from 69 percent in 1995 to 63 percent in 2005 (despite an 8 percent increase in the number of such admissions over this time period). Although inhalation has remained the second most frequent route of administration, the proportion of primary heroin admissions who inhaled the drug increased from 27 percent in 1995 to 33 percent in 2005.
