Posted on 01/20/2014 2:12:28 PM PST by BBell
Heroin abuse has been getting more attention lately.
Last week, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin spent his entire 34-minute State of the State address talking about the state's "full-blown heroin crisis," and law enforcement officials in small cities across New England have noted an increase in heroin use.
Demand for the drug might be coming from people who are hooked on prescription pills.
Health officials and drug experts have started noticing that heroin use has been exploding as states crack down on "pill mills," which get people addicted to Oxycontin and other pain killers even when they don't have a medical need for them.
David DiSalvo writes in Forbes that the increase in heroin use has overlapped with a decrease in pain killer abuse. He notes that the number of new non-medical users of pain killers dropped from 2.2 million in 2002 to 1.9 million in 2012:
The reason may come down to basic economics: Illegally obtained prescription pain killers have become more expensive and harder to get, while the price and difficulty in obtaining heroin have decreased. An 80 mg OxyContin pill runs between $60 to $100 on the street. Heroin costs about $9 a dose. Even among heavy heroin abusers, a days worth of the drug is cheaper than a couple hits of Oxy.
As states crack down on pill mills, fewer people will be able to obtain the drugs through a prescription and supply will be cut off. Pain pills become less available and more expensive.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
American Gangster. Smuggling drugs in dead servicemen’s body and caskets.
That is what is happening down here. These young kids do not know what they are buying and a lot of the heroin is very pure. Not like in the 60's and 70's where it was cut so much.
I know what you mean and have seen what you saw in Chinese history, though. An answer to part of that question is that Han Chinese folks seem to have always wanted some kind of empire or other. They have a kind of empire in communism—a familiar assurance (as they saw it) that was lacking in Chiang Kaishek & Co. (among other things).
But yes, Britain was also corrupt in some of the actions in Asia—not very nice ways to trade or very effective in fighting against communism. Other European nations were also guilty. The best antidote against communism is the early American morality that our new political, business and academic leadership has been replacing.
Contrary to what some would have us believe, early America (before the 1850s) wasn’t essentially Greek or Roman in religious philosophy or law. It was much more anti- and was based on morality. Some of the greatest benefits of early American influence lasted well into the 1900s.
“History tells us that the time will come.”
Drugs have been around since before the first prostitute did it for a whole nutmeg and will continue to be long, long after anyone remembers that any of us ever existed. The Nazis sometimes used a concrete wall as a backstop for their bullets when trying to eliminate such “trash of society”. They were worse than those they sought to eliminate. Do you suggest that history repeat itself?
Maybe they ought to loosen the restrictions on OxyContin and let these people get it through pharmacies at market prices. That would reduce the demand for the heroin AND put the crooks out of business.
But that would would make too much damned sense I suppose.
Very well stated.
One of the best posts on FR this month in MHO.
That is how we lost Janis Joplin.
A great lose in my opinion.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.