Heroin: Making a comeback with avengence

[BlueLineIPSC]

If you follow the local news in southeast Louisiana, you may have noticed that a bunch of vehicle burglaries and home burglaries have been cleared recently; all of them have been attributed to heroin addiction.

This morning I find out a young man that went to school with me could have possibly OD'd on heroin last night. He was definitely an interesting character, but not someone I would have suspected to be hooked on HEROIN.

It's a real problem folks. I urge you to keep your eyes and ears open, and if you see or hear of something strange let your local law enforcement agencies know. Keep your homes and vehicles locked.

 

[rtr_rtr]

Had heard rumors about heroin at MHS a couple years after I graduated, but nothing firm. Though, not too huge a stretch from the acid, shrooms, and x that were easy access when I was there. Would have expected meth to make it first though

 

[JNieman]

Guess I should adjust my retirement investments accordingly.


Seriously though, it's been making headlines where I'm from in rural Missouri too. Used to be the methiest county in the methiest state in the nation, and now it's being invaded by heroin, too. Lots of St Louis is moving out to my old area though so it's not surprising...


Living in Lafayette, I just expect /all/ the drugs to be problems. Big city problems. I had some tweaker ransack my shed and not take anything, though he ripped off the lid to my bbq grill and took the remnants of the coals.

 

[D-DAY]

It's gonna get worse.


Heroin is very cheap and there is an abundant supply. Which goes very well with our high opiate demands here in the US. Vicodin--->Percocet--->OxyContin---------------------/------>Heroin. Oxycodone is roughly $1 per mg on the street. So an 80mg OxyContin is $80 per tablet. Heroin is much much cheaper per hit, but the problem is once you cross over to it, there is no going back. So, with our current drug laws in place and with the DEA cracking down more and more on pill mill doctors and pharmacies, we are running up the cost and decreasing the street supply of pharmaceuticals. This, in turn, forces addicts to a readily available alternative thats even cheaper than their current habit, heroin.


We have wasted the last 25 years trying to fix the drug problem by going after the supply side with ever increasing amounts of enforcement. This has been an utter failure, unless you are one of the many indulging in the fruits of the ever increasing enforcement spending. It's time to actually address the real problem, which is the demand side. It's the only way to begin to fix the problem.

 

[dwr461]

In the past two weeks I've heard that four people died from heroin OD's in Baton Rouge.

I went the first fourteen years of my career at EBR EMS without one heroin OD. I've personally been on 6 in six months now. I work straight days right now so I don't see as many as those working nights. So yes heroin is becoming a huge problem.


Dave

 

[themcfarland]

Most of the H you will see in Louisiana is not the old black tar stuff but a white powder now.. and evidently narcan does not reverse it as well.. I will be curious as to how bad it will get.

With the electronic tracking now and such, its harder for folks to doctor shop, unless they go to texas..

H I feel will be much like the crack was in 80's//

 

[rtr_rtr]

Most of the H you will see in Louisiana is not the old black tar stuff but a white powder now.. and evidently narcan does not reverse it as well.. I will be curious as to how bad it will get.

With the electronic tracking now and such, its harder for folks to doctor shop, unless they go to texas..

H I feel will be much like the crack was in 80's//

The only reason I can think of for the narcan is the white powder is just higher purity, and people are shooting a larger amount of actual heroin - nothing that a higher narcan dose shouldn't fix

 

[BlueLineIPSC]

The purity levels of narcotics across the board have gone up since the 80's whether it be cocaine, heroin, marijuana. They are all much stronger.

You are correct that it is not black tar anymore. Typically the whiter the substance the purer it is.

 

[TomTerrific]

Guess I should adjust my retirement investments accordingly.


Seriously though, it's been making headlines where I'm from in rural Missouri too. Used to be the methiest county in the methiest state in the nation, and now it's being invaded by heroin, too. Lots of St Louis is moving out to my old area though so it's not surprising...


Living in Lafayette, I just expect /all/ the drugs to be problems. Big city problems. I had some tweaker ransack my shed and not take anything, though he ripped off the lid to my bbq grill and took the remnants of the coals.

Same here in Central Kentucky and it's really bad in the Appalachians.

A lot of young, male addicts in recovery have used it at one time or another.

A woman I knew whose baby was born cocaine positive died about four months later from an OD

Lots of skinny people with lousy teeth in Kroger, a sign of meth addiction, I think.

 

[dwr461]

2 mg IVP Narcan has been working so far. If it doesn't I'll go ahead and give up to 10mg IVP.

Dave

 

[themcfarland]

Glad you still have a heart..

 

[tim9lives]

Heroin is beyond epidemic levels....And it made its comeback 10 years ago. Now its just everywhere.
There is more heroin on the streets now than there is cocaine IMO....at least from what I see and read. FWIW...that's exactly why we are seeing more vehicle break ins and purse snatchings.
Heroin is one wicked drug.
The old saying....of having a gorilla on your back to describe its addiction is pretty accurate. Heroin addiction makes crack seem like a pimple on ones ass in comparison IMO. And FWIW...it is truly the one drug which will get one addicted after trying it 3 times within one week.
Once addicted....Heroin becomes a physical addiction. The body needs and craves it. There is no such thing as cold turkey with heroin. Yea....there are some great Rx drugs which will help one go through withdrawal without too much pain.
But...it is not that easy to get professional treatment unless one has money. For the street person....crime tends to be the only viable answer.
Its just a wicked fricking drug like no other on earth. Fricking wicked....in a very bad way.

 

[JR1572]

If you follow the local news in southeast Louisiana, you may have noticed that a bunch of vehicle burglaries and home burglaries have been cleared recently; all of them have been attributed to heroin addiction.

This morning I find out a young man that went to school with me could have possibly OD'd on heroin last night. He was definitely an interesting character, but not someone I would have suspected to be hooked on HEROIN.

It's a real problem folks. I urge you to keep your eyes and ears open, and if you see or hear of something strange let your local law enforcement agencies know. Keep your homes and vehicles locked.

Thanks for the tip.

It's been a problem in the metro Nola area for at least 15 years now.

JR1572

 

[themcfarland]

I had NO idea its that bad already.. Thank god for my ability to get lost in more healthy things..

 

[tim9lives]

I had NO idea its that bad already.. Thank god for my ability to get lost in more healthy things..

I hate to say this....But I'm very inclined to think that heroin can be had by most high school students in the Greater Nola area. Its a very wicked drug but its just everywhere now. And the price has fallen big time. Like JR said...it started showing up in quantity in NOLA back in the late 90's.
But in the last few years it appears to be damned near everywhere. Its not uncommon to see busts where some guy who is just a street level dealer getting popped with ounces of high grade heroin. That was unheard of 20 years ago.
In fact...It was Judge Bagert who pushed for the Life in Prison for heroin distribution back in the 1970's. Because of that....it was a drug which was really in the shadows. It is not in the shadows anymore.
And this is exactly why I am adamant about wanting the FDA to reclassify marijuana to a lower schedule. Right now...Marijuana and Heroin are both schedule 1 drugs. Schedule I means that the drug has no medical use at all.
But many people...Especially teenagers think it means that the DEA Schedules are a classification of the drugs danger.
Cocaine is a Schedule II drug...and Vicodin is a Schedule III drug.
Unfortunately...many teenagers will go online and read these drug classifications....They see that weed is a schedule I....try it....and then are inclined to believe that since weed is in the same classification as heroin....and since they tried weed and it wasn't addictive or that bad....They are led to believe heroin will be the same. Curiosity along with a parasitic dealer makes them easy prey. Furthermore...they will one day ask a dealer...Do you have any weed....The dealer says "I'm out...But have some Heroin..." Thats all it takes.
We would be much better off in this country if we revamped many of our drug laws. Get the weed out of the dealers hands and into the Governments....Under control of the Alcohol Board..
In all honesty...its just scary to realize heroin is probably available to most high school kids today. I'm not saying its being sold on campus. But I bet its available to 16 and 17 y/o's.

 

[CUJOHUNTER]

I work on Bourbon 5-7 nights a week for the past 12 years. In the last 5 years maybe 6, I've seen more heroin junkies and dealers than I do for marijuana and cocaine. I see transactions go down almost on a nightly basis. Dealers are getting brave and don't really care much for the police presence or the lack of sometimes.

 

[JR1572]

I hate to say this....But I'm very inclined to think that heroin can be had by most high school students in the Greater Nola area. Its a very wicked drug but its just everywhere now. And the price has fallen big time. Like JR said...it started showing up in quantity in NOLA back in the late 90's.
But in the last few years it appears to be damned near everywhere. Its not uncommon to see busts where some guy who is just a street level dealer getting popped with ounces of high grade heroin. That was unheard of 20 years ago.
In fact...It was Judge Bagert who pushed for the Life in Prison for heroin distribution back in the 1970's. Because of that....it was a drug which was really in the shadows. It is not in the shadows anymore.
And this is exactly why I am adamant about wanting the FDA to reclassify marijuana to a lower schedule. Right now...Marijuana and Heroin are both schedule 1 drugs. Schedule I means that the drug has no medical use at all.
But many people...Especially teenagers think it means that the DEA Schedules are a classification of the drugs danger.
Cocaine is a Schedule II drug...and Vicodin is a Schedule III drug.
Unfortunately...many teenagers will go online and read these drug classifications....They see that weed is a schedule I....try it....and then are inclined to believe that since weed is in the same classification as heroin....and since they tried weed and it wasn't addictive or that bad....They are led to believe heroin will be the same. Curiosity along with a parasitic dealer makes them easy prey. Furthermore...they will one day ask a dealer...Do you have any weed....The dealer says "I'm out...But have some Heroin..." Thats all it takes.
We would be much better off in this country if we revamped many of our drug laws. Get the weed out of the dealers hands and into the Governments....Under control of the Alcohol Board..
In all honesty...its just scary to realize heroin is probably available to most high school kids today. I'm not saying its being sold on campus. But I bet its available to 16 and 17 y/o's.

Even though they are both Schedule I, Heroin is definitely the worst of the two.

Either way, the dealers and users of the two are people I rather not associate with.

JR1572

 

[CEHollier]

And our troops are in Afghanistan the top heroin producer in the world. Strange isn't it?

 

[killerkarl]

And our troops are in Afghanistan the top heroin producer in the world. Strange isn't it?

Yes, it was to be expected when we helped them get their heroin production going again after the Taliban had cut it back drastically.

 

[CEHollier]

Yes, it was to be expected when we helped them get their heroin production going again after the Taliban had cut it back drastically.

Sounds wrong in many ways to me.