Trajectories of Aging Long-Term Mexican American Heroin Injectors

Abstract

Objective To examine the applicability of the “maturing out” theory to a sample of aging Mexican American men who are long-term heroin injectors. Method Ethnographic data were collected as part of a cross-sectional study of aging Mexican American heroin users in Houston with 20 current heroin users. Results Findings indicate that dysfunctions that emerge in the heroin lifestyle lead not to cessation but rather to “maturing in,” a specific process of social readjustment that returns the heroin user to a stable maintenance pattern of use instead of a recovery phase. This process of paradoxical maturing out can be attributed to the unconditional social support provided to the heroin user by family, peers, and the tecato subculture embedded in Mexican American communities. Discussion Results highlight the implications for the intersection of heroin-related conditions, natural age-related impairments, and cognitive functioning that make this population increasingly susceptible to adverse health consequences.

Older Former Prisoners’ Pathways to Sobriety

“…While prior work has found that older chronic users adapt their substance use, but remain immersed in it (Levy & Anderson; 2005; Anderson & Levy, 2003; Cepeda, Nowotony & Valdez, 2016), these data reveal that an involuntary period of sobriety may interrupt an addiction career, and set men on a new trajectory. Building on Best et al (2011), whose respondents in remission from heroin identified older age as an important turning point away from substance use, this research suggests that detoxification and sobriety experienced in prison may serve as an important “turning point” away from drug use for older men.…”

“…Despite their increasing marginalization, authors conclude that older users are unlikely to “retire” from their chronic usage in the absence of illness or death. More recently in a study of Mexican-American long-term heroin injectors, Cepeda, Nowotony & Valdez (2016) show that older men, increasingly beset by “dysfunctional life changes” as a result of escalating substance use, did not “mature out” and enter a period of recovery, but rather “matured in” to a more stable or maintenance level of heroin use in older age, a use trajectory facilitated by the strong social support of families and social networks.…”

“…Examining these long-term users, researchers have begun to uncover the ways in which older age influences drug use patterns and practices (Anderson & Levy 2003; Levy & Anderson 2005; Cepeda, Nowotony & Valdez, 2016). In contrast to this emerging research, very little is known about how or why older people desist from illicit substance use.…”

“…Yet older age brings with it substantial changes in social roles and responsibilities (Rossi & Rossi, 1990), social networks (Van Tiliburg, 1998), perspective and goals (Carstensen, 2006), and physical bodies (Hébert, 1997). And just as aging substance users differ in their use patterns and experiences than those younger (Anderson & Levy, 2003; Levy & Anderson, 2005; Cepeda, Nowotony & Valdez, 2016), it seems likely that older people likewise differ in their motivations for and processes of substance use cessation.…”

Mental health of heroin users with differing injection drug use histories: A non-treatment sample of Mexican American young adult men

“…Heroin has historically been consumed by Mexican Americans living in impoverished and economically and racially segregated neighborhoods in San Antonio (Desmond and Maddux, 1984; Valdez and Cepeda, 2008; Valdez et al, 2011). This context has given rise to a vibrant drug market, making marginalized and drug-using populations more susceptible to arrest, incarceration, and gang involvement (Cepeda et al, 2015; Valdez and Cepeda, 2008). …”