Significant demographic shifts, including the emergence of a young generation of Hispanic heroin users, are in evidence in a newly issued report on substance use trends in the state of Texas, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported July 24.

The Substance Abuse Trends in Texas: June 2008 report from the Gulf Coast Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) and the University of Texas Addiction Research Institute found that while Hispanics represented only 23 percent of heroin users in 1996, that proportion had more than doubled to 55 percent by 2007.

Other dramatically shifting trends include a significant drop in the proportion of African-Americans among all individuals in treatment for crack cocaine addiction -- from 75 percent in 1993 to 46 percent last year -- and an increase in the proportion of Anglo-Americans among all individuals in treatment for crack cocaine addiction from 20 percent to 35 percent over the same time frame.

"The type of person using a drug 10 years ago is often not the same person using it today," said the Addiction Research Institute's Jane C. Maxwell, Ph.D. She advised treatment and prevention professionals, "You have to target new groups."

In Tarrant County, social worker Daryl Dulany of Volunteers of America said the most recent data are pointing to individuals entering treatment with longer addiction histories. Fort Worth area treatment programs are also tending to see an increase in patients with pain medication dependence, along with fewer admissions for methamphetamine addiction.

The most recent research, based on admissions to Texas treatment centers funded by the Department of State Health Services, identifies a drop in the average age of heroin users from 37 to 34 from 1996 to 2007. "We need more effective treatment to target a younger population," Maxwell said.

The report indicates that alcohol holds steady as the main drug of choice in the overall population. Nearly half of Texas high school students reported past-month drinking in 2007, with 29 percent reporting past-month drinking of five or more drinks in a row. Binge drinking rates for girls have been increasing as rates among boys have been dropping, the report states.