NPR had an excellent show yesterday, about the ubiquity and cheapness of heroin. Heroin is now cheaper than weed and most synthetic opiates. A doctor who treats addicts called in, and said that most addicts (to opiates) die as a result of overdoses. The young man was just in rehab-most likely, his withdrawal put him at risk-as his tolerance was now lowered, a large dose would kill him. My question: if you enter rehab, you have accepted that you have a problem-why would someone like this (who had a good acting career) act so recklessly?
They also had a reporter on from a Vancouver (B.C.) newspaper-who said that a lot of street heroin is spiked with other drugs-you never know what you are buying (and at what purity level).
A sad fate for a young life…but at 31, I guess he was free to make his own choices.
I think this is better suited to IMHO than GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
The answer depends on how you define common. It’s been happening to heroin users as long as I’ve been alive. It often happens to people with no change in their tolerance (if that even was a factor here) because they have no idea how much heroin or whatever else was in what they injected.
As I posted in the Corey Monteith thread:
No, it’s the interaction between heroin and alcohol which is lethal:
" The single most common cause of heroin sudden death is bad interaction (and sometimes synergy) of heroin with CNS depressant–especially alcohol and barbiturates. The government has made it very hard to get barbiturates during the past couple of decades, so the biggest problem is alcohol.
I have been present during several sudden deaths that happened when a drunk person ingested a relatively small amount of heroin. This appears to have been the cause of Janis Joplin’s death, in addition to the deaths of many others who are commonly said to have died of “heroin overdose”."
Pleasure is . . . pleasurable.
I’d like to see a cite for that- especially the weed part. That’d be kind of shocking.
A few years back I entered into a 90 day treatment program for opiate addiction. In the short three months that I was there 4 people died from overdoses within a week from leaving treatment. So it’s well known among opiate/heroine addicts that your tolerance will be far lower upon leaving treatment. I don’t believe he was being reckless. He made a far too common mistake of using the same amount of the drug that he was used to prior to his detox.
Yeah, $60 will get me high every night for at least a week and a half. I highly doubt you’d get that kind of value out of heroin.
If you’ve never had a life-threatening drug problem, it’s something you can’t understand intellectually.
I feel pretty meh about drinking and getting high. It’s fun sometimes, but not something I feel the urge to do very much. And I don’t feel that different or great while doing it. I just can’t relate to people that want to do it all the time.
My sister is ‘allergic’ to opiates, in that a relatively small dose can depress her nervous system to the point that she stops breathing. She still was addicted to heroin for a couple years. She O’D 8 times, but someone was always there to get her breathing again. Some people just REALLY like getting intoxicated, is the most I can figure. Add in physical dependence on a particular substance, and you can spiral down to the point where your life is at risk pretty easily.
Because drug addiction is nasty and difficult to overcome, and causes many of its victims to make irrational, if not downright stupid, choices.
My wife’s stepfather was an addictions counselor for many years. Even among those of his clients who willingly chose to enter rehab (whom you would think would be those who would be more motivated to not fall off the wagon), the relapse rate was very high.
Not cheaper, but in certain locations much easier to get. A friend’s daughter started using heroin her senior year in HS. I asked her why, and it was basically ease of availability.
As are the problems that can drive people to drug addiction in the first place.
I can believe that.
A video about the rise of availability and cheapness of heroin in Maine.
(videos are free to watch)
Would it be possible to develop some sort of simple chemical test for the “purity” of heroin? Like litmus paper? They could hand it out at places like safe injection sites etc. I’m assuming this would not go over well in the U.S.A. but it would be a good idea in countries with more enlightened drug legislation.
It was kinda weird to hear that program last night because I found out earlier that day that a guy I went to high school with died from a heroin overdose. I hadn’t seen him in over a decade, but it really hit home while listening to NPR last night.
I still don’t think such things are really common, but I think it is growing more common because society is being primed with opiates in the form of legal pain prescriptions, and because global events have led to heroin production rising in some areas (Afghanistan), prices falling, and purity rising. Since heroin is cheaper than oxy on the street, people tend to gravitate towards that now if they find themselves addicted to opiates. It used to be you had to actively seek out illegal narcotics to put yourself in the position to become an addict. Now, it just might be that you hurt your back, or got your wisdom teeth removed, and overdid the pain meds not knowing you were vulnerable to addiction. Kinda sad really.
That said, the reason I quoted what you said is because of an important point the program made. After the first few times, addicts are often not even getting high anymore. They are just using to feel normal again. They mentioned how your brain chemistry guides many of these addictions. Neurons have specific receptor sites for endorphins that opiates can affect. Drugs like heroin initially get you high (euphoric), but then they just function as an analgesic. One caller last night with a $150/day habit described how she just used to get through the day. She said she takes very little pleasure in it anymore; in fact, she scolded for the host for even suggesting it was pleasurable. It really puts in to perspective how crippling such an addiction can be.
According to this article, heroin can be pretty cheap. Obviously, it depends on dosage and purity.
Another article:
And one more:
Far from conclusive, but I can imagine heroin is in fact cheaper in many parts of the country than other drugs including weed and alcohol.
Used to be in what good ole times? My mother became addicted to painkillers (which weren’t even helping her pain due to being the wrong kind :smack:) back in 1984, and allow me to remind you that heroin was named so by the doctors who distributed it.
Amazon might literally have everything. That said, it doesn’t seem to be relatively cheap or widely available. Plus, I think the danger also comes from other crap that might be in the drug, not just the purity.
But that is definitely NOT cheaper than marijuana. A gram of marijuana costs about ten dollars and that is a lot more than “one dose” for most people.
Yes, in the late 1800’s when it was invented. Heroin hasn’t been prescribed or promoted by doctors in a long, long time. Opiate painkillers only began being prescribed in 1984 when Vicodin was created. Oxy (1995) and Percocet (1999) came much later. It has only been relatively recently that these drugs have become relatively ubiquitous. Also, because Oxy is more potent, it makes an easier transition to illegal drugs like Heroin. I didn’t mean to imply there were not gateways drugs to heroin addiction in the past, just that it’s MUCH easier today.
If I want a half ounce of weed, I contact one of a couple people I know. I wait anywhere from a day to a week to hear back. When I hear back I’m told anything from “come over” to “maybe in a week or two”.
If I wanted heroin I could drive to an area in a nearby city and buy what I wanted.
It’s all about easy access.