Posted on 11/26/2013 6:44:37 PM PST by BBell
A 6-year-old boy stepped off the school bus one October afternoon and found himself locked out of his Metairie home. He peered into the kitchen window and saw his mother's lifeless body on the floor.
Two weeks earlier, another 6-year-old returned to his Old Metairie home after a weekend away and found the decomposing body of his mother in bed.
In July, a River Ridge woman found her 41-year-old son dead in a bedroom in her home, her third child to die from a heroin overdose.
Those lives lost, two from heroin and another from a drug made to resemble it, illustrate a troubling trend: Deadly overdoses are on the rise in the New Orleans metro area. Nowhere is the problem more pronounced than in Jefferson Parish, which leads the state in the number of overall drug deaths and those caused by heroin.
Drug deaths in Jefferson Parish hit a four-year high in 2012, with 87 fatalities. Those caused by heroin also hit a four-year high, with 23 people dying from lethal quantities of the narcotic
This year will be worse. As of Nov. 22, 117 people died from drugs in the parish, 61 from heroin, said Jefferson Parish Chief Death Investigator Mark Bone.
Jefferson Parish is not alone. Orleans and St. Tammany parishes have also seen spikes in heroin deaths, which follows a statewide surge.
"The increase has just been truly alarming," said Dr. Mark Ryan, director of the Louisiana Poison Center in Shreveport. "It's national. It's not just here. It's everywhere."
Several factors have contributed to smack's comeback. Nothing has changed about the drug's harrowing highs and lows or its inescapable craving. But more users -- younger and more likely to live in the suburbs -- are getting hooked on a cheaper, higher-purity product. Many are turning to heroin as
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
We never should have armed the mujahideen.
My apologies to our Kentucky Freepers, I clicked the wrong state in the topics line.
Chocolate City Blues.
It is a bad thing. BTW, love your tagline.
A lot of people love heroin. If I ever get terminal I will give it a shot. Might as well go out smiling.
Big money in the drug trade and it goes all the way to the top
It’s not a Chocolate city thing, it’s out in the burbs. There are some graphs at the source.
If you ever get terminal, the Death Panel will make sure you get your shot.
Yup, It is rampant here. I know of a few young people who have used or are using. They go to jail, and as soon as they are out, use again. A young girl with a child ended up in prison for a couple of years for dealing. It is so out of hand.
Obviously Jefferson Parish needs to be evacuated immediately
I’ve done my share of drugs but heroin wasn’t one of them. I knew where to get it if I wanted it but I had a natural aversion to it.
What would Harry Lee do?
Metairie is not what it used to be.
The population has changed considerably since Katrina.
I suppose I am completely lacking in empathy and sympathy but I harbor no concern whatsoever for those who choose to risk their very lives for a high. One would think people would have better sense but one would be wrong, obviously.
Same here in Slidell. A different place. Some of the local Leo’s call south Slidell the east east New Orleans.
For all the harm that drug addiction and overdosing causes, I believe the War on Drugs is worse.
Legalize heroin and marijuana. Methamphetamine and PCP can stay illegal. Try the experiment in a few states. Maybe we’ll have mellow addicts instead of raging ones. We’ll have some people who stop breathing and there will be neglected children.
Is that any worse than the criminal culture in the inner cities (not all of which is drug-fueled) and the corruption and militarization of our police forces, and the damage to our Constitution and liberties?
My 29 y/o got a lesson big time a few weeks ago when a 31 y/o friend od’d. First death in his extended circle of contemporaries.
My son told us the deceased friend’s father collapsed during the service and was taken away in an ambulance. These people have no idea of the potential harm to themselves and the lives of their loved ones that are devastated. Just imagine those 2 6 year olds. They will never be able to recover fully emotionally.
It is a problem. Idle hands = devil’s playground problem.
When you punish self-sufficiency and reward dependence you foster a dependent society. This is the unintended consequences. Get rid of the pot and heroin, and they’ll turn to alcohol, or whatever else they can get. Socialism is a self-fulfilling prophecy that proves it’s necessary to save us from ourselves by creating people who need saved.
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