U.S. teens turning to heroin as a cheaper high
By Tim Johnson, McClatchy Newspapers
EL DURAZNO, Mexico — Mexico’s heroin industry has had a bullish few years, and for traffickers the outlook is as uplifting as the scarlet, orange and yellow poppy flowers from which the narcotic is processed.
What was once a problem largely confined to hubs in California and Texas, Mexican traffickers have expanded into the Midwest and the Atlantic Seaboard, narcotics experts say.
Using savvy marketing tactics, they’ve also repositioned heroin commercially, revamping its image from the inner-city drug of yore, with its junkies and needles, into a narcotic that can be snorted or smoked, appealing to suburban and even rural high school youth.
A coincidental factor has given the drug gangs a tail wind: The epidemic abuse of painkillers has ebbed in the United States, and youth now hunger for a cheaper high.
“We’ve heard around the country of changes away from prescription drugs, because they are either more expensive or more difficult to obtain, and a movement toward heroin, which is less costly,” said Gil Kerlikowske, a former Seattle police chief who’s the White House drug czar.
The U.S. State Department said in March that Mexico has surpassed Myanmar as the world’s second largest poppy cultivator and produces 7 percent of the world’s heroin, mostly for the U.S. market. The State Department and the United Nations say that Mexican poppy production has nearly tripled since 2007, though Mexico strongly disputes that estimate.
What’s indisputable is that drug syndicates that produce black tar and brown heroin in Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains are pushing aggressively into areas where they haven’t been active before.
Either they’re going to have to legalize drug use or tighten up the borders.
Our government policies are encouraging crime and killing people.
Or we can do something within our own country, with our own doctors and pharmaceutical producers, about the epidemic of painkiller abuse. Which is the stepping stone to heroin. And they are much easier to get.
What would you do, Bongo?
Dogowman, agreed. The Heroin problem in Tahoe for example is HUGE.
The pill problem here is larger.
Tighten up the borders? All efforts to stop drug trafficking have increased. Sure we can always do more. Now cartels dig massive tunnels and have fully submersible submarines. Drugs are just as available and of higher quality.
The manufacturer of Oxycontin has already been in trouble for marketing its drug as less addictive. I wonder how much Prudue Pharma makes on oxycontin addiction in the US…
Why aren’t anti abuse measures required on all pills? If they could make a drug as effective as oxycontin, without the euphoria… would they sell it?
Okay, Bongo, the thing about the “euphoria” part of pain meds? I had cancer and recieved chemo & radiation at the same time and was in intense pain. I didn’t use oxycontin, but did have vicodin, couldn’t take morphine, but eventually had to have a fentanyl patch. Part of the physical pain involved the stress of knowing there would be more pain, anxiety, etc. So the euphoria part is actually an essential ingredientt for people who are truly in extreme pain.
Just fyi.
“At about $15 a hit, heroin is a lot cheaper than prescription painkillers such as oxycodone (known by its brand name, OxyContin), which can cost $50 to $80 a tablet on the black market. Both opiates, they have similar highs.”
When our son was in high school, he said the same thing: the kids did Oxycontin because it was considered a clean prescription drug, but later they would do heroin, cause it’s much cheaper. Because of this, I’d say Oxycontin is a gateway drug, and it’s very curious how such large quantities of it make it to the streets.
The bigger question is why do people feel the need to mood alter? Has it increased? Do kids start younger? or harder drugs earlier? Are the makers of RX drugs really doing their part to prevent these drugs from reaching the street?