More teens are entering drug rehab facilities because of heroin abuse

Officials from the Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse recently found that many local teens are seeking treatment for heroin addiction, The Dallas Morning News reports.

Officials told the news source that most of the teens seeking treatment stem from a series of overdoses from a mixture of heroin and sleeping medications in the past three years. They added that nearly 200 teens per year are being treated at state-funded drug rehab centers in Dallas County.

Furthermore, in 2005 approximately 33 teens were treated for opiate addiction. However, that number has jumped to 218 in 2009, according to officials from Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. Officials said that the greatest number of admissions to treatment centers was for marijuana addiction.

In an effort to help prevent teens from using heroin and other substances, Dallas County started a task force in 2007. Local school districts have also formed the "Street Patrol" to educate students about the danger about peer pressure to use drugs.

According to the 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 2.5 percent of children have used heroin at least once during their lifetime.