Clinics treating more heroin addicts

AUSTIN (KXAN) - According to the Drug Policy Alliance , Texas is experiencing an overdose epidemic.

The group said accidental poisonings, which include overdoses, are now the third leading cause of injury-related deaths -- behind car crashes and suicides.

Local treatment centers blame prescription drug addictions that are opening the doors to heroin addictions.

As a rodeo clown in his 20s, Jack Housworth suffered a knee injury which he said led to an addiction to Vicodin and then much worse.

"That opiate addiction is what really started me on a downward spiral in life," said Housworth.

Housworth said he took up to 50 pills a day then turned to heroin.

"I said I would never stick a needle in my arm, I said I would never steal from my family, I said I would never cheat on my wife, and ultimately I ended up doing all of that," said Housworth.

Following an arrest when he was homeless and the court ordered treatment in 2003, Housworth now counsels at Austin Recovery , where staff said admissions into medical detoxification for heroin have risen in recent weeks.

"I think there's been an influx of what they call China White and Black Tar heroin on the market and it's a lot more potent than what they're used to in the community," said Austin Recovery admissions director Angela Vickery.

As the admissions director, Vickery is in the trenches of a war against addiction.

"It's a serious situation. People are dying from this," she said.

Vickery said she's seen people addicted to painkillers turn to heroin because it's cheaper and easier to get.

People you'd never expect to be addicts, she said.

"Soccer moms, professionals who have been functioning adults," said Vickery.

In a report by the Drug Policy Alliance, overdose deaths in Texas from both illegal and prescription drugs increased by more than 2 1/2 times between 1999 and 2007.

"What's happening in Texas is really mirroring what's happening in virtually every other state in the country," said Drug Policy Alliance spokeswoman Meghan Ralston.

Housworth is counseling addicts from experience and hopes to prevent overdoses by acting as living proof the battle against addiction can be won.

"It's not really life, it's more like just surviving, existing. I've been clean for about 7 1/2 years now and I tell you, life is wonderful, it really is," said Housworth.

The Drug Policy Alliance said Texas needs to do better about not only educating young people about not doing drugs, but also about how to recognize an overdose and how to respond to one.

They also said overdose reversal drugs like Naloxone should be more readily available.

Austin Recovery said people who need help should know they will make detox as safe and comfortable as possible.