Data show that over 20,000 emergency rooms visits in the Chicago area were due to heroin-related incidents

Heroin continues to affect many people's lives. Experts say that most individuals start by using prescription medication that contain opiates, such as Vicodin and OxyContin during their early teens and begin using heroin when they become young adults because it is cheaper.

A recent report by Roosevelt University showed that nearly 23,931 people in Cook County, Illinois used emergency rooms for heroin-related problems from 2004 to 2008, Northern Star reports. This number translates to a 50 percent increase over New York, which ranked second in the study.

“We spotted the trend a few years ago and noticed heroin showing up a lot more in smaller, rural communities,” Ken Kaupas, Will County deputy police chief, told the news source. “They have been going up to [Chicago] and bringing it back down to sell.”

Law enforcement officials suggests that increasing education about opiate abuse as well as parent involvement may steer some teens away from using the drug. They added that they are seeing a shift from older African-American individuals using the drug to young white abusers.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, approximately 1.5 percent of 10th graders abused heroin at some point during their lifetime.