17 Heroin Overdoses, 1 Death: Could Happen Anywhere Says DEA Agent
detroit.cbslocal.com/2016/07/06/17-heroin-overdoes-1-death-could-happen-anywhere-says-dea-agent/
THREE TIMES the Heroin user in abt 10 yrs and FIVE TIMES the Heroin related deaths in abt 15 yrs. Wonder why that is.. the DEA is not doing their job of preventing drugs from crossing the boarder ? Heroin is now the least expensive opiates ? All too many chronic pain pts have been denied their needed pain medication by prescriber and has turned to “the street” in an effort to help address their unrelenting pain. Remember the chemical name of Heroin is ACETYLMORPHINE… which metabolizes into MORPHINE in the body… it is about 2-3 times mg/mg stronger than Morphine. Still FRACTION OF PEOPLE die every year from opiate overdoses than die from the use/abuse of the drug drugs ALCOHOL & NICOTINE !
The city of Akron, Ohio, is reeling with a rash of heroin overdoses within a 24-hour span.
Special Agent Rich Issacson with the DEA’s Detroit field division isn’t surprised.
“It’s a huge problem in Akron, Ohio but it’s also a huge problem across the United States,” said Issacson. “There is not a community in southeast Michigan that hasn’t been hit hard by the opiate abuse problems, that’s including pain killers, like hydrcodone and oxycodone products as well as heroin.”
Issacson says word of the deaths probably won’t scare a lot of people into rehab.
“On occasion when there’s talk of heroin overdose deaths – or a series of heroin overdose deaths; sometimes as counter-intuitive as it sounds – that actually sounds attractive to a heroin addict because they know that if that heroin caused the death of another user, that must have been pretty strong heroin,” Issacson said.
Police in Ohio say the calls began around 1 p.m. and continued through the afternoon and evening and three of the victims include a mother and her two daughters.
The Summit County Medical Examiner’s Office says a 44-year-old man died of a suspected overdose and an autopsy is set for Wednesday.
Edwards says 55 people have died from heroin overdoses in the city this year.
Heroin use has reached the highest level in 20 years in the United States, according to a recent global drug report that calls the trend “alarming.”
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime released its World Drug Report last month, which said heroin is the deadliest drug worldwide, and said its increasing use in the U.S. is of particular concern.
There were about one million heroin users in the U.S. as of 2014, almost three times the number in 2003. Deaths related to heroin use have increased five-fold since 2000.
There are an estimated one million heroin users in the U.S. as of 2014 … three times the number of a decade before.
Filed under: General Problems
@Kik…I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you’re kind of new to this area of thought…Most of your low level dealers are themselves addicts. As such, they too suffer from the disease of addiction…I’m talking about a real and definable pathology of mental illness. Addicts do not respond to the usual and customary kinds of deterrents/punishments as their risk/reward decision making metrics are not the same as the individual not so afflicted with this illness.
Addicts are pretty ingenious in terms of coming up with ways to continue to satisfy their need for their drug of choice. If the system starts busting them way more frequently as you suggest, they’ll quickly adapt and find ways to continue their behavior and not get busted way more frequently. I’m going to go all Trekkie on you her, but addicts are like the Borg. They’ll adapt quickly to whatever the system does to change their behavior. Resistance is futile. Prohibition will be frustrated.
Succinctly put, Prohibition is a failure. One would think that the dubious experiment with alcohol would have been an effective teacher. We’ve tried varying levels of Prohibition with other substances for about 100 years with the last half or so of that called the War on Drugs. It’s a failure as public policy goes. It’s time to try something else. A harm reduction model is a far better way to go.
100% agree, lespaul. Great post!
Low level dealers need to busted way more frequently. Dealers and buyers need to be afraid to make deals