Heroin use in the United States soars after crackdown on prescription painkillers such as oxycodone

[Cali_Democrat]

Heroin Makes a Comeback
This Time, Small Towns are Increasingly Beset by Addiction, Drug-Related Crimes

By ZUSHA ELINSON
and
ARIAN CAMPO-FLORES


<...>

Heroin use in the U.S. is soaring, especially in rural areas, amid ample supply and a shift away from costlier prescription narcotics that are becoming tougher to acquire. The number of people who say they have used heroin in the past year jumped 53.5% to 620,000 between 2002 to 2011, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. There were 3,094 overdose deaths in 2010, a 55% increase from 2000, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Much of the heroin that reaches smaller towns such as Ellensburg comes from Mexico, where producers have ramped up production in recent years, drug officials say. Heroin seizures at the Southwest border, from Texas to California, ballooned to 1,989 kilograms in fiscal 2012 from 487 kilograms in 2008, according to figures from the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The heroin scourge has been driven largely by a law-enforcement crackdown on illicit use of prescription painkillers such as oxycodone and drug-company reformulations that make the pills harder to crush and snort, drug officials say. That has pushed those who were addicted to the pills to turn to heroin, which is cheaper and more plentiful.

"Basically, you have a generation of ready-made heroin addicts," said Matthew Barnes, special agent in charge of the DEA's Seattle division.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323997004578640531575133750.html

[Warpy]

1. Gee whiz, what a surprise.

The bottom line is that the DEA isn't making a dent in addiction, they're only taking the safer drugs away.

[Arcanetrance]

2. Doesn't surprise me my dad takes delauted and I haven't been able to get his prescription filled

for 2 months. He had to be switched to a different medicine that doesn't work as well for him

[99th_Monkey]

3. DEA = Druglord Enrichment Associates

We need to seriously curb our NSA, DEA, FBI snoop-dogs asap.

[Fozzledick]

10. Drug Extortion Agency

A wholly owned subsidiary of the Cocaine Importing Agency.

[bunnies]

4. I know people who abused Oxys...

They wound up junkies and are now in jail. And my doctor wonders why I wont take the shit she tries to give me. Fuck that.

[sorefeet]

5. I watched here in Montana

Doctors were treating pain patients then the DEA came in with a threat and the docs started dumping people like hot cakes, hundreds were on the street cold turkey. Then comes the heroin. And the cops and prisons just love it when a plan comes together. That's how easy it is to get a heroin epidemic going on. The drug war is a man made invention for profits.

[blueknight]

6. heroin

has ravaged my town here in northern kentucky. i personally know of at least 10 young people that have died from it, and several more in jail for having it

[Eleanors38]

7. To understand prohibition is to understand hydraulics.

[RedCappedBandit]

8. Oxy is basically heroin. No surprise.

[Zorra]

9. The 18-30 yr old kids I talk to tell me heroin is now the main drug of choice for their age group.

I have been horrified to hear this. Heroin is the very worst of the worst.

If there is a devil, it is heroin.