Dehaven was dead on. Two extremely important factors that were not mentioned is that kids attitude toward "hard" drugs like opiates and heroin has totally changed and so has the accessibility to these drugs. Even in the suburbs, opiate use and heroin use is rampant particularly because so many kids aren't afraid of dope these days. I have been in treatment for 20 years and its remarkable how many kids today aren't scared to try heroin. When I was a kid you had to go out of your way out of your way if you were crazy enough to look for heroin and now its easily accessible at highly affordable prices in most local areas, not just in the inner city. Today's dope is strong and pure, its out there and kids are willing to try it like never before. Therefore we need a new approach to this new problem - Taking the Escalator