Geriaddicts

Elderly drug addicts. (Geriatric + addict.)

In Britain, the use of heroin and crack cocaine is “shifting from the young to the old,” Jane Deith reported for Channel 4 News:

It seems young addicts are turning away from the opiates and crack cocaine they saw their parents use in the 80s.

But many addicts in their fifties, sixties and seventies are entering their second or third decades on heroin and crack, and developing acute health problems. Experts are calling this the “dawn of the geriaddicts.”

According to Deith, older addicts are less likely to overdose, and are consequently less likely to come to the attention of authorities. They are, Deith argued, “a hidden population.”