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.
There you go: if only the Massachusetts State Police had a few Cobras, they could nip this Horse problem in a week or two.
All the WOD does is makes the profit for drug dealers even higher. Get rid of the WOD, you will get rid of most crimes associated with drugs (there are lots) and give the best treatment available to those who want it. I know a woman who was addicted to heroin and crack and she was forced out of treatment after a few days because there weren't enough rooms available...
Please check your logic: even with the war, we are getting lower prices and more purity. And your criticism of the legalization argument is that it will result in what is actually happening with the war?
This study shows that would increase dependency. So much for drug legalization wackos thinking.
Again, what you are stating is the actual, present result of the war, not the hypothetical result of legalization. So much for the drug warriors ability to handle simple reasoning.
Come on, the Drug Warriors do not care about those things as long as they have a job, and can imprison or get away with killing people they don't like.
If possession of drugs was not a crime, then law enforcement, judges and politicians would have no easy means of getting rid of people who are problems for them, or funding their campaigns and departments. As long as they can continue to scare the average dim-witted sheep with the "Drug-crazed boogie man", they will retain their power over all of us. Its really that simple.
How can Libertarians be happy when the expenditure on the War On (some) Drugs is higher than it has ever been in the past, with no end in sight, and despite the obvious and tangible failure of this war as shown by the present article?
"High quality, low, low prices. I'd give the sh*t away, but my ol' lady won't let me."
There should be a corresponding decrease in drug related crimes if its that cheap. I think the price of $4.00 per "bag" is bogus.
You have done nothing to demonstrate their speciousness---an argument isn't proved wrong just by noting that "nobody" agrees with it. Might (as in strength of numbers) does not make right.
A and B. Banning drugs for adults does nothing to protect minors.
From the U.S. Department of Justice's National Criminal Justice Reference Service (publication NCJ 145534): "Of all psychoactive substances, alcohol is the only one whose consumption has been shown to commonly increase aggression. [...] Marijuana and opiates temporarily inhibit violent behavior [...] There is no evidence to support the claim that snorting or injecting cocaine stimulates violent behavior. [...] Anecdotal reports notwithstanding, no research evidence supports the notion that becoming high on hallucinogens, amphetamines, or PCP stimulates violent behavior in any systematic manner."
A point that leaves me mystified. On the one hand governments piled on during the tobacco law suits, for the love of the almighty dollar, now they want to kill the goose. Somewhere there is a disconnect. Or could it just be people in any kind of non-military, elected position are just the offspring of the village idiot?
Funny that in for all the times the "worn out record" has been played, it hasn't once been successfully rebutted.
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