Posted on 12/19/2002 7:44:47 AM PST by MrLeRoy
Low prices and increased purity have caused heroin use to skyrocket in Massachusetts, with a new study showing the drug is the No. 1 reason for admissions to treatment programs and hospital detox units as well as overdose deaths.
"This is a drug epidemic permeating every corner of our commonwealth, and as a society, we need to aggressively fight to end the human suffering," said Dr. Howard Koh, commissioner of the Department of Public Health, which issued the report yesterday.
"Heroin deaths are suffocating our society," he said.
The DPH report showed heroin is the most common drug for which people in the state are seeking substance abuse treatment, with 37 percent of those entering treatment last year saying it was for heroin addiction.
In fiscal year 2002, which ended June 30, some 42 percent of the people entering state-supported substance abuse treatment programs reported using heroin within the past year, compared with 19 percent in 1992.
And 60 percent of the people entering detox programs reported using heroin within the past year, the same percentage as for alcohol.
"Heroin use has increased dramatically over the past 10 years," said Teresa Anderson of the agency's Bureau of Substance Abuse Services.
Since 1996, rates of opioid-related hospitalizations soared 74 percent, including a 230 percent rise among those in the 15-24 age group and a 150 percent jump among those aged 45-54.
The highest rates were among men aged 25-44, however.
Opioids include heroin, codeine, morphine and oxycodone.
Fatal heroin overdoses jumped 156 percent from 1990 to 1998 and another 10 percent between 1999 and 2000, the report said. Fatality rates were highest for those aged 35-44.
Deborah Klein Walker, associate commissioner for programs and prevention, cited lower prices and increased purity as reasons why heroin use is soaring.
"Heroin use has continued to rise over the last few years," said Daniel Mumbauer, president of the Highpoint Treatment Center in Plymouth and New Bedford.
"More than half of all folks admitted to inpatient units for detox, their drug of choice is heroin," he said.
"It's cheap and accessible," he said.
A bag of heroin now costs only about $4, Mumbauer said.
"It's cheaper than a six-pack of beer," he said.
That makes it attractive to younger people, he noted.
And the fact that the heroin these days is very pure allows people to get high from snorting it instead of shooting it - at least at first.
That's another reason why younger people are willing to try it, Mumbauer said.
In the end, however, "intravenous is still the most popular way of getting high from heroin," he said.
Intravenous use of drugs is linked to transmission of HIV and hepatitis C, Klein Walker said.
State police Sgt. Al Zani of the Essex County Drug Task Force in Lynn said a bag of heroin that cost $20 in the 1970s now costs $4 - and the purity is up from about 5 percent to anywhere from 30 to 80 percent.
"We're seeing the consequences," he said. "You're seeing teenagers doing it. You see a lot of high school students."
DPH officials said they hope to use the report to improve programs aimed at prevention and treatment.
"Treatment works," Koh said.
Maybe. But the two alternatives are no war and legalization, which means much lower prices and more purity. This study shows that would increase dependency. So much for drug legalization wackos thinking.
The War on My Fat Ass is failing this Christmas. I need to become a soldier in the War of Going To The Gym.
If you're fishing for people who think the WOD is an unquailified success, I don't think you'll get too many bites.
Wrong. The reasons for ending the failed War On Some Drugs are that the WOsD leads to the following: deaths of innocents in drug-turf wars; deaths of users due to contaminants and unexpectedly high potencies; enrichment of criminals; and corruption of the justice system by enriched criminals. (Not to mention that it's wrong to imprison people for acts that violate nobody's rights.)
Actually, the WOD is largely driving this trend. Pot is bulky and difficult to smuggle, so it costs $100-$300 an ounce, whereas heroin is compact, and the purer you make it, the more money you get for the same volume brought it.
Like all other government endeavors, the law of untintended consequences is at play here - by lumping pot in with hard drugs, the government has made a much less harmful drug (pot) much more expensive than a very dangerous drug (heroin). I hope they're happy...
Wrong. The reasons for ending the failed War On Some Drugs are that the WOsD leads to the following: deaths of innocents in drug-turf wars; deaths of users due to contaminants and unexpectedly high potencies; enrichment of criminals; and corruption of the justice system by enriched criminals.
Not to mention that it's wrong to imprison people for acts that violate nobody's rights. Protecting people from their own bad choices is liberal policy, not conservative.
Maybe your society.
There are a lot of percentages in this article, but they don't tell much of a story without absolute numbers. Big percentage increases often mean small numbers.
Correct. What's your point---to remind us that many murders are caused by the War On Some Drugs? (Dealers in legal drugs like alcohol don't kill each other.)
Of course I'm surprised. How can this be? Ain't we spending billions on this War on Drugs every year for over 10 years now? Maybe we should start spending trillions and declare the Constitution null and void,and give hard time in a feral prison to more pot smokers? Yeah,THAT oughta do it,along with giving fighter-bombers to local sheriff's departments and attack helicopters to the state police!
The Libertarians must be happy. Aren't they the ones who always tell us the way to go is to legalize, make it cheap and avoid all those prisons?
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