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Subscribe to RSSDeaths from heroin abuse rose from six in 1999 to thirty in 2011, and this year it is on track to be even worse. NBC's Kate Snow reports.
Yardena Schwartz
NBC News
Chicago Police Capt. John Roberts never thought that moving to the suburbs would mean that his 14-year-old son Billy would immediately be introduced to drugs. And never did he ever imagine that Billy, a high school athlete, would even think of touching heroin.
After 33 years in the Chicago Police Department, Roberts was finally ready to retire. He couldn’t wait to move his family out to the suburbs, where he thought his kids would live in a safer environment, attend better schools and be sheltered from some of the ugly realities of city life.
But after growing addicted to prescription painkillers, Billy and his friends could no longer afford their habit. They soon turned to heroin, which they could buy for a tenth of the price of their favorite pill, Oxycontin. Billy was 19 when he died of a heroin overdose, but he wasn’t the only one of his friends to suffer that fate.
John Roberts, a retired Chicago police captain, started the Heroin Epidemic Relief Organization after losing his teenage son to a heroin overdose.
At first, Roberts couldn’t believe what was happening to his family , and that heroin could affect a good kid like Billy. But then he realized he wasn’t alone.
Across the country, heroin use is growing at an alarming rate and is affecting a surprising segment of the population.
“Kids in the city know not to touch it, but the message never got out to the suburbs,” said Roberts, who founded the Heroin Epidemic Relief Organization to help other families cope with the shock of teen heroin use. Like most parents in upper-middle class neighborhoods, Roberts said, “We didn’t think it would ever be a problem out here.”
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, initiations to heroin have increased 80 percent among 12- to 17-year-olds since 2002. In 2009, the most recent year for which national data is available, 510 young adults between the ages of 15 and 24 died of a heroin overdose. That figure was just 198 in 1999, meaning that the rate of young adult deaths caused by heroin more than doubled in one decade. Close to 90 percent of teen heroin addicts are white, data show.
Recovered teen heroin addict Alyssa Dedrick and her mother, Mary, discuss their family's struggle with addiction, and how in the suburbs, heroin abuse is "right under our noses."
Crackdown on painkiller abuse fuels new wave of heroin addiction
“Part of the problem is they don’t realize how bad it is,” said Roberts. “After Billy used it a few times, he thought he was OK, because he didn’t seem like a junkie.”
The biggest problem seems to be the connection between prescription painkillers and heroin. The opiate high that teens seek from drugs such as Oxycodone (the actual drug contained in OxyContin brand pills) may also be obtained from heroin, which is much cheaper, easier to buy, and offers users a more intense high.
“It’s hard to talk about the heroin problem without talking about the prescription drug problem,” notes Rafael Lemaitre, of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Given new research on skyrocketing prescription drug abuse, the link between opioid pills and heroin is even more alarming.
The number of teenagers seeking treatment for heroin abuse has skyrocketed, and the number of deaths from heroin among high school and college-age kids more than doubled from 1999 to 2009. NBC's Kate Snow reports.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, deaths from prescription drugs tripled nationwide between 2000 and 2008. In a recent national survey on teen drug abuse conducted by the University of Michigan, one in eight high school seniors admitted to using prescription painkillers they weren’t prescribed. Overall, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, drug overdose (from both prescription and non-prescription drugs) is now the leading cause of accidental deaths in the United States. Officials fear that the over-prescription of powerful painkillers and the lack of awareness about the danger associated with them could continue to fuel the problem.
“Kids are going to believe that this is not a problem, and parents are going to continue to leave their prescription opioids unattended if they don’t know about the risks,” said Westley Clark, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment at the Department of Health and Human Services.
While marijuana has historically been the usual suspect, prescription pain killers are now becoming the latest and most dangerous gateway drugs.
In dozens of interviews with former young heroin addicts, NBC News found that every single heroin user had arrived at shooting up the same way: starting with expensive prescription drugs, which they purchased from friends for $20-$60. When they became too addicted to afford pills, they listened to friends who told them they could get a better, cheaper high if they used heroin instead. For $3-$10 a bag, they said, they started off by snorting the drug, never thinking that they would end up injecting it. Most of them started shooting up within weeks.
Alyssa Dedrick was an honor roll student from a nice Boston suburb, and her high school’s cheerleading captain, until she discovered Oxycontin. When she and her friends could no longer afford the pills, they tried smoking heroin. Dedrick, now 23 and fully recovered, never imagined she would ever try the drug, let alone plan on injecting it. She said she just wanted to see what it was like, but within a week she was putting a needle in her arm.
Chris O’Connor grew up in a loving Catholic family in a wealthy Boston suburb. His father works in commercial real estate, his mother is a homemaker. For a while, O’Connor was able to hide the fact that he was driving to the city on a regular basis to score heroin from dealers on the street. He earned excellent grades in high school, and even went on to study at Georgetown University, where he did pretty well at first.
“I just thought it wouldn’t affect me,” said O’Connor, who is now 27 and still recovering after more than 20 stints in treatment. “People who come from a privileged background are generally shielded from negative outcomes in life,” he said.
With the cost of prescription drugs on the rise and heroin becoming purer and cheaper, the drug that spawns fear in other generations has become more appealing to a younger set.
For teens living near major cities, heroin can also be easier to buy than prescription drugs. Rather than having to find someone who has a prescription, they can just do what Chris O’Connor did and take a quick drive into the city, where they know they can score at any hour of the day.
According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, Mexican heroin production has increased significantly in recent years, from an estimated 7 metric tons in 2002, to 50 metric tons in 2011. That sevenfold increase has made heroin more available in metropolitan areas across the country, including Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Illinois, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.
For families like the O’Connors, who once considered themselves immune to heroin, the crucial difference between life and death was early recognition, treatment and constant support.
It’s taken Chris more than a decade, but he can now triumphantly say he’s been clean for at least a year. Many of the friends he once used with have not been as fortunate.
“I think ultimately what saved my life was the love of my family, being there for me unconditionally,” he said. “I had so many psychologists and therapists. The best ones weren’t the smartest ones, they were the ones who cared the most.”
Resources for addiction recovery:
Heroin Epidemic Relief Organization (HERO)
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Partnership for a Drug Free America
Leave a Comment:
Your report regarding the Herion addiction increase especially among our youth left a lot to be desired as far as I'm concerned. I have to Herion addicted sons, we live in a relatively small city in New Mexico, it's readily available, and our sons have managed to not only destroy our lives but theirs. We've been robbed blind, and all they care about is how they are going to get their next fix. All at our (the parents) expense. Lost tools, antiques, jewlery, money, credit, our reputation, you name it, it's gone, and there is no help in our community or state for the parents of Herion addicts. The situation is pathetic, and we're torn apart for a drug as parents we enstilled in our sons not to ever use. To no avail. We try to live day by day, and hope for the best, but the outcome doesn't look good despite our effort to do everything possible to help them, and us! I recommend CSNBC do an in-depth coverage on this pathetic epidemic. And we were worried about Marijuana. LOL, no comparison what-so-ever!
Pharmaceuticals... the real gateway drug!
Guess who paid for all the council for drug free America's persecution of Marijuana??? Pharmaceutical companies and American Breweries like Anheuser-Busch. You have to wonder why a council for a drug free America spent every dime on Marijuana and no attention to heroin, opium, etc.. Now you know!
Heroin is the worst possible nightmare someone could face. I know that in Arizona there are very little programs that offer help for the addict or the families. I do agree with one aspect of this article and that is that the epidemic is predominantly middle to upper middle class caucasians. The problem is, these teens hold the idea that it will never happen to them, that this is stuff that happens to underprivelaged people in the ghetto. It is a myth. Once someone believes they are too good to suffer the same fate when playing with fire, it is usually the beginning of the end.
Education!! Teens, children and people in general believing that somehow living in in the suburban bubble they will be protected need to wake up! There is no bubble, only truth and education. There is no class, no race above drug addiction!! Wake up and tell your children from the moment they can understand you to not use drugs, show them the end result--death, the morgue, or prison. One more piece of advice, don't ever be so arrogant to think it won't happen to you or your family. Beware, heroin is the purest evils and its sole mission is to destroy.
If you advocate marijuana, how do you explain to a teenager about not doing drugs. A drug is a drug and you gave them reason to try it. Hell any teenager nowadays can dig really deep to make a wrong right. You legalize marijuana and take away the intrigue, but kids will push the limits and try other drugs that are illegal. Kids will always push their limits... they are invincible, indestructible, and don't think they can fall victim to addiction.
There is help, it's called Al-anon and Tough Love. Both of those groups focus on the loved ones of addicts. My son's father is a long time heroin user, 20+ years, this program help me. Is he still using, yes. He's also been in dozens of rehabs, behind bars dozens of time, went to prison twice, lost his family, friends, career, and anything else of value.
Nothing you do is going to change their behavior, nothing...
Hey NMRawker, give it all to the Lord man, I'll pray for you. Perhaps you cold find a good church, hard to find one of those these days, to turn to for support.
NMwrawker--This is one of the reasons I am given second thoughts about legalizing Marijuana. But I have a question for you--were your sons involved in school sponsored athletics? MY HS is more concerned about the team's record than about the kid's health, and I watched as the baseball coach 'blew out' the arm of a good left handed pitcher by over pitching him, and giving him pain pills when his arm hurt.
But one thing you and your wife may have to learn is TOUGH LOVE. You may have to prosecute your own sons, in order to get them clean, and you may have to lock them out of your lives and home.
My ex's uncle's two sons both did drugs, and lied and stole from him, and played on his sympathy each time they got caught, as their mom died of cancer. Dad eventually re-married, and he left his second wife EVERY PENNY and stick of furniture/family stuff to his new wife and SPECIFICALLY said in his will that the reason was he didn't want to see them 'shoot it' all into their veins.
There's no such thing as a gateway drug; to assert otherwise is a logical fallacy known as post hoc ergo propter hoc. Widespread drug addiction is only conditioned by the society to which drug users belong; only impartial education on the matter (including briefs on how to properly administer heroin and cocaine) in the school curriculum and the availability of economic opportunity will successfully curb drug related mortality rates; drug abstinence programs and criminalization will only exacerbate the situation by breeding potentially lethal ignorance and inhibiting the social mobility of drug users when the background checks in their search for economic oppertunity come up with an undue criminal record, besides criminalization violating several human rights and civil liberties such as the right to liberty and security of the person.
I saw a program recently and some scientist predicted that Humans will eventuall split into two separate Species. One, a highly evolved intelligent one. The other less intelligent/violent.
Seeing all the drug abuse/kiilings of late, I think we're seeing it starting already.
We complain about the drug cartels bringing the drugs into this country when in fact our main problem is right across the kitchen table from us.
It's the fools using the drugs that feed the cartels. I feel badly for the families that are affected by the them, but I have no sympathy at all for the drug addicts. They chose that life. No one forced them to take drugs.
As for the rehab programs, They only work if the addict wants it. A friend of mines 24yr old step-son has been hooked on heroin since he was 16...he will go clean for months at a time,,but it never lasts..he just plain likes being stoned.
I really admire the interest taken in this report. I had a problem with pain killers myself but i am currently seeking help from a suboxone clinic...It actually works!... I sometimes still have the urge to use but mostly when im upset or around people who contribute the drugs...My husband,also an addict, tried using heroin when he couldnt find the strong pain pills that would get him high...I of course didnt approve and stopped the problem before it got started...I thought that there was no way that i would become an addict...i thought i could control ir even though everyone said i couldnt...i started taking more nd more...thankfully, my husband and I got help and support each other best we can to avoid the people and enviroments that may trigger us to use again...For parents/addicts out there, there is plenty of places you can get help. whether its the suboxone clinic, therapy, or just the love of your family...this problem can be solved..SEEK HELP NOW!!!...when your clean, you can help others get themselves clean...save a life and your own...whats better than that?
my sister was killed in a car accident a lil over 3 years ago on her honeymoon by a drunk driver. that was the first day i ever used heroin. i tried to quit 5 times in 3 years and didnt succeed. this last time i sent myself away to a place in peoria,il and was able to finally kick it. i used methadone in the past and don't recommend it for anyone. this time i did it cold turkey. ive been clean for 6 months. opiates are the worst drug to try to over come cause it's such a feel good drug. i pray for all the families who have to go through with this. i did everything from stealing to hustling for my drug. i grew up in a great family and it will take a long time for them to trust me again but, i know one day it will come. i think alot of tough love and reassurance that it can be overcome is the best anyone can do. read up on heroin or any opiate so u know the warning signs before it's to late. you will still run across the typical user where thats the way they wanna live there life but, there are many that cry out for help. long term treatments are a gift from god. it's what saved my life and now i'm in college for my accounting degree so my prays go out to all families that are going through this. save their life before it's to late.
An addict has to want to stop, you can't make them stop.
The Herion Diaries by Nikki Sixx is an excellent book and needs to be read by every teenager, after you read that book, you will never touch the stuff.
My nephew, a great kid, overdosed on heroin. He was a wonderful caring family kid who we all loved and miss very much. It is an epidemic in the suburbs of Boston. He didn't think it would kill him just like they all do. He was trying to stay away from it. He must have felt he could have one last hurrah and it killed him. My brother came home to find him overdosed on his kitchen floor. The worst part is that my bother stopped outside to speak with a neighbor which he rarely did while his kid was dying in the house. He wonders if could he have been saved! It will haunt him for ever. We wish we could go back and replay the day to save him but we can't. Life is so precious and fragile and these kids don't get it. We keep his memory in our hearts but miss him every day. I have two other nephews that are struggling with addition. One is in a rehab the other is out now and seems to be doing okay. The teens need more education about heroin in their schools. They should play movies in the showing the horrors like we suffered, maybe it would sink in. God help anyone who is addicted it is a tough habit to give up. We miss our newphew everday and only hope and pray that the other nephews will not suffer the same fate!
Well, for christ sake put the little bast@rds in jail....what the hell kind of parent r you?...not a very good one if you have TWO kids on drugs...quit whining and DO something....freakin idiots!
Four dollars worth of lead, a fifteen dollar shovel, and one grave deep enough for two ought to be solution enough.
If you provided your children with the tools to prevent this from happening, and they chose to do it anyway, you need to equip yourselves with the tools to cut the ties.
If kids have time to OD on drugs instead of studying to provide the country with a scientific and technically literate workforce (which we DON'T have), there's something seriously wrong with the education system or their parents (I'm guessing both)
No surprise that the kids use this crap, considering the example set for them by their parents....and especially their baby boomer grandparents, the Woodstock morons.
The Woodstock morons at the very least were less violent!
To NMRawker, pack up and move take your kids with you, the only option you have is geographic, it may be hard but I dont see anything else to save your kids. I to will pray for you.
Not long ago I predicted this would happen. I know about drugs and heroin from life experience, as well as receiving my BA in Sociology. Back in the 60's and 70's even 80's we had a bad epidemic in this country from heroin. I lost 2 brother's at the age of 19 from heroin, one died from a Hot Shot my other brother overdosed. Most of the people I grew up with also died as a result of heroin. In 1990, my husband overdosed on pharmaceuticals and heroin. He left me a letter which states that he could no longer deal with his addiction, he also asked me to tell my son he loved him more then he love himself and that he couldn't beat his addiction. Yes, he tried he went into rehab 19 times he began shooting heroin at 16, my husband grew up in suburban area. I grew up in low-middle class income area in Brooklyn.
What I find really upsetting are these people who have no idea or life experience with drugs. They blame the pharmaceutical companies. These companies are producing pharmaceuticals for people who have cancer, or live with chronic pain like me because I fractured my spine in several places, also have a degenerate spinal disease. They didn't make them with the intentions of young kids using them to get high.
Education is the answer if schools invited speakers to come and speak to their students about the dangers of drug abuse, especially heroin they may think twice. After, the 3rd day on heroin your hooked. My husband had 3-4 yrs clean relapse why your body begins to crave it.
Parents need to be educated as well. As someone else stated heroin is the worst possible nightmare someone could face. Heroin is the purest evils and its sole mission is to destroy just like crack is. why, did I predict this was going to happen because of the way the DEA is dealing with it. You cannot deal with it the same way you deal with the cartel, and that is exactly what they're doing. Now the cartel and heroin and crack dealers have a big smile on their faces, why you may asked. Because the more they make these drugs abuse proof, the more people are going to begin to do heroin.
Heroin is one drug anyone at any age should stay clear of. If not it will destroy your life, family, hopes and dreams. Please parents don't be afraid to discuss it with your children they need to know how this drug will destroy them. Also, as you build a tolerance to heroin your habit increases, so it may start with a 10 dollar bag, but very soon it will be up to 100 dollars a day. At this point they will have to rob to maintain the expense of this habit. It is pure hell, it kills!!
Any child can fall for the lure of drugs and a few bad so called friends urging them on. Any child.
If we are going to save people from these kinds of horrors, we have to let go of our old, outdated ways of seeing the world and the people on it. Brian Williams opened this report by saying that Heroin use is "associated" with the inner city (minorities) not the suburbs (white). This kind of thinking is the reason that we have social crisis after crisis. Stop associating dysfunction with a group and by that, hope to hide your own dysfunction, and start treating the cause of the dysfunction. If you repress young people by telling them that they must resist their basic urges from early in life, they will seek some unnatural way to assuage them. If they can't resist any longer, they will indulge in the extreme. Our repressive way of dealing with natural development is to blame. It's time to recognize that and deal with it. It is more and more difficult to lie to kids today. They, often, know a great deal more than their elders. Yet, they are expected to accept the elders authority and old ways of doing things and or seeing the world. It's very frustrating and there is often some form of hit back. For some, that is self-medication. WAKE UP!
Janine - you are cuel and obviously have no knowledge of the power of addiction. Your comment offer no constructive input to this topic.
Engaging in the chicken-or-the-egg circular argument is a very weak position. If you have read/studied/known an addict/or been addicted yourself you would know better.
COYOTEHUNTER - my nephew died of a heroin overdose in jail......
There's no easy answer and parents who are strict and who do give "tough love" still end up losing their kids to heroin. And these are not bad kids - good, kind-hearted kids who have families that love them.
It's everywhere.
CoyoteHunter - what a great idea - Prison- If you've ever been there you would know that it is just as easy to buy heroin and about any other drug you want on the inside as it is on the street.
The only solution is for proper treatment, and cutting off the supply - neither happens behind bars
So now it's the "grandparents" fault that children are drug users? Get a life goofy. There will always be "drug users", every generation has them, including this one. How's the war on drugs working for you? As we continue to throw money down a toilet in Afghanistan, as we guard the very drugs that are killing these kids, because most of the western worlds heroin comes from Afghanistan. Funny heroin is legal in Portugal, yet they have not nearly the overdoses that the USA has, interesting fact eh? But discuss controled legalization and the cries from the masses is "your going to ruin the children", laughable, there already being ruined. As a product of the "Woodstock" generation we had our share of wild times, please let me know which generation has not? Sell stupid elsewhere, were full up on here already.
P.O., you're wrong. I have known addicts. Drugs and alcohol, and know the grief they cause their families by their actions. I have no tolerance and no sympathy for them. They chose that life themselves. No one forced them to use drugs or alcohol.
Addiction is not a disease. It's a CHOICE.
I might agree with you that addictions can run in families, just as certain types of cancers can run in families. But if your Mother/father/brother/uncle/whoever is a drug/alcohol addict and you CHOOSE to use and abuse those products that is CHOICE.
Unlike those cancers that can run in families, addiction IS 100% preventable.
This should be no surprise. We have a huge American presence in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has a huge Poppy crop. We do nothing about the Poppy crop on account it's the poor farmers only cash crop. Also some relative of the dude running the place (Afghanistan) is neck deep in the Opium trade. Poppy=Opium=Heroin. If this is anything like VietNam the military might be helping to bring the drug into the U.S. Big crop, increased production, more on the street, price comes down. $10 for a fix, I don't know for sure, but that seems about the same price as back in the 60s. Price comes down, the folks inclined to do illicit drugs jump on it. No surprise if your paying attention. The Question here is, WHO is bringing the DRUG in? WHO is refining the Opium into Heroin? If it is not the military, who is doing the smuggling? This is not a cheap enterprise. What 1% has his foot in Afghanistan and the key to the doors of America? You have hardly touched this story. Less about the poor users, my sympathy, MORE about the profiteers, and I'm not writing about the dealers on the corner. Go after the big guys that are destroying this country.
It is JUST as illegal to buy illegal drugs as it is to sell illegal drugs.
Throw them all in jail, and let nature take it's course.
Vern hates all liberty...he thinks using the state to make us the most incarcerated nation on Earth in history (which we are) is good, and that having over 50% of our prisoners be nonviolent is also good....which then logically means we need to grant early release to violent criminals who shouldn't be released, like child molestors, murderers, and rapists...
...but then Vern complains about those people being released when it's his own policy choices and preferences that lead to the prison overcrowding causing the violent people to be released and to victimize new victims all over again.
Vern...let nonviolent adults do what they like when they are only DIRECTLY harming each other of their own free wills. That way, see, you can house violent criminals and focus on them...since they're the only real criminals in society.
Nevermind Vern, go back to your sociopathic fantasies of control and force; threatening the world with violence to get your way, and treating adults like children of the Almighty state...your god.
My ex is a long time user, he's NEVER EVER been in jail or prison for drugs, per say. He's been in many jails and prisons for the crimes he commits to feed his habit, but never for being caught with drugs/needles/paraphernalia/etc. In California, where I'm from that is only a misdemeanor, him robbing, stealing, theft crimes, receiving stolen property, which costs all of us, is what sent him behind bars.
To bring it down $10 a fix would be bringing in tons. That amount couldn't be handled by a G.I.
Vern--while it IS just as illegal to buy drugs like heroin as it is to sell them, you are ignoring the fact that the Heroin was ALSO smuggled in to the US.
That's TWO crimes on the distributor end.
Maybe we should throw YOU in Jail, Vern - for your STUPIDITY!!
You have it exactly right@ Jklombardi
Portugal has legalized heroin, and not even close to the overdoses that America has. The war on drugs is a failure, and has been for over 40 years, it's a joke. We have filled up our prisons with non-violent drug users which is costing us a fortune, time to end this "war" because we have lost it. Want to see kids not overdose, then have controlled legalization, and it will dramatically drop. The reason so many die is because every package of heroin has a different intensity and strength. These kids aren't trying to die, there trying to get "high", not die. If we stick our heads in the sand, nothing will change. Legalize and control, that is our only hope, because wishing it wasn't so, does not make it not so. Having been to both Portugal and Holland, it is so much better than an ally in LA or Chicago. And if all countries in Europe did the sames as Portugal, the problem would be not even noticeable. And, no usage did not go up when this happened, in fact after seeing it, the usage has gone down. When will we ever learn?
more information on Portugals legalization, read, learn, act, vote
"By freeing its citizens from the fear of prosecution and imprisonment for drug usage, Portugal has dramatically improved its ability to encourage drug addicts to avail themselves of treatment. The resources that were previously devoted to prosecuting and imprisoning drug addicts are now available to provide treatment programs to addicts." Under the perfect system, treatment would also be voluntary, but as an alternative to jail, mandatory treatment save money. But for now, "the majority of EU states have rates that are double and triple the rate for post-decriminalization Portugal," Greenwald says.
For those looking for clues about how the U.S. government can tackle its domestic drug problem, the figures are enticing. Following decriminalization, Portugal eventually found itself with the lowest rates of marijuana usage in people over 15 in the EU: about 10%. Compare this to the 40% of people over 12 who regularly smoke pot in the U.S., a country with some of the most punitive drugs laws in the developed world. Drug use of all kinds has declined in Portugal: Lifetime use among seventh to ninth graders fell from 14.01% to 10.6%. Lifetime heroin use among 16-18 year olds fell from 2.5% to 1.8%. And what about those horrific HIV infection rates that prompted the move in the first place? HIV infection rates among drug users fell by an incredible 17%, while drug related deaths were reduced by more than half. "There is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal," said Joao Goulao, President of the Institute of Drugs and Drugs Addiction, at a press conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the law.
We’re not holding our breath that the Portuguese example will lead to any kind of abrupt about-face in America's own drug war, which is still sputtering steadily along at a cost of trillions a year. However, with the medical marijuana movement so far refusing to be strangled out of existence by the DEA, Senators Jim Webb and Arlen Specter recently made a proposal to create a blue ribbon commission to look at prison and drug sentencing reform. And for any pro-legalization presidential hopefuls in 2012, the movement for a common sense drug policy in the United States may be finally moving into the mainstream.
I don't think that American military is shipping these drugs around, but I do think that their actions have signficiantly increased the supply of drugs in the country. While I don't like the Taliban and much of what they stood for, they weren't tolerant of poppy production or heroin production. Once they lost control, the warlords gained in power. They way that the kept power was through money earned from drugs. I don't think that most Americans including me or the government understand how it works or the implications of war. I hate to say our actions there have had direct consequences here.
I live in southern California and the kids here are strung out on cheap Mexican black tar.
I live in Southern California the kids here are strung out on cheap black tar heroin from mexico.
Another great reason to lock our borders up!
As long as drugs are illegal, criminals will use the blackmarket to make fortunes, and sell to kids in the process.
Legalization of alcohol ended a child alcoholism problem, created during prohibition. Same reason, illegal bootleggers would sell it to kids. Because they are criminals. Legitimize and control it, get it away from kids. In wont stop every kid from getting drugs, but it will slow it down. Its better then nothing stopping them, which is the case now. Dope is for sale everywhere. Then you can concentrate on anyone still selling to kids and roast them.
Only in a perfect world
The police can already go after people who sell drugs to children. We don't need to "legalize" illegal drugs to do that, moron.
Only in a libertarian society...oh wait, you guys hate all things liberty unless you can tax and regulate it...which kind of defeats the liberty part.
Vern apparently doesn't get that making drugs illegal means its uneforcable to keep drugs from kids, as drug dealers don't card kids, but pharmacists do. He also doesn't get that black markets are run by sociopaths with bankrolls large enough to buy off the cops...like in Prohibition.
Keep hating liberty Vern, its all about you and your tyrannical preferences of force and aggresion, and has nothing to do with effectiveness.
Vern-1642229
The police can already go after people who sell drugs to children. We don't need to "legalize" illegal drugs to do that, moron.
We all see how effective the police have been in going after people who sell drugs to children. Case in point this article. And although it is obvious that you have been called offensive names as evidenced by your willingness to engage in this practice it does not give you anymore credibility
Freedom--sorry, but the minute you used the Phrase "CONTROL it" you are once again creating a profitable 'product' that drug dealers will use to victimize children.
Same with legalizing put but putting a TAX on it--someone will ALWAYS sell it bootleg with NO tax added.
You were joking right, Teen age alcoholism and even pre teen alcohol abuse is rampant in this country, The repeal of Prohibition did not reduce alcohol related crime/violence/deaths/illness/costs to our nation, Crime did not suddenly end when Prohibition was repealed. The only thing it did was make it easier for people to obtain and abuse alcohol, FYI...the tax on alcoholic beverages does not even come close to the cost of regulating it. And that does not even include the cost to society from alcohol abuse , Domestic violence, Drunk driving, Severe health problems, Children born with birth defects due to their mothers abusing alcohol, Turning productive members of society into alcohol dependant people who obtain public assistance and even disability compensation because of their alcohol dependence.
I think some people misunderstood what Vern was saying. He did not suggest making illegal drugs legal, but rather arresting people who buy drugs the same way as the people who sell the drugs. This is happenning but it is more important to get the sellers - the big cartels. If you arrest enough of the buyers they will most likely talk and tell who the dealers are in order to get a lighter sentence. Also, Mr Rightnow - the cops are effective but there are not enough of them and also, the court system slaps alot of these dealers on the wrist and they get out and are back on the streets selling again. The dealers know how to get around the law - they get underaged kids to peddle their dope knowing that the court system goes easier on them.
Thats called being a narc, you get killed for that. Wouldn't recommend going down that road, they'll kill long before the drugs do.
I guess that model is like the prescription drugs that caused this problem in the first place. They are legal, available, and get the children/teens hooked. Because the costs of prescription drugs are higher and the young people's desire for drugs is intense, they move onto heroin.
So your suggestion is to make heroin legal too? Because of its highly addictive nature, even a casual exposure often leads to a lifelong addiction.
I agree that one key is education. I'm not sure what the other anwers are.
The aunt of two heroin addicted nephews
Vern-1642229, you're suspended for a day for violating #1 of the Code of Honor.
Why couldnt they just smoke pot like everyone else at there age...
why couldnt they just smoke pot like the rest of us!
This is Darwinism at its finest. If you are stupid enough to use dangerous drugs, don't be surprised when bad things happen. I think this is indicative of the pill/medication happy society we have created. Parents: WAKE UP. Talk to your children about dangers such as drugs, be aware of what they do. This problem is only going to get worse before it gets better.
its a bigger problem then just talk to your kids im sure alot of parents have talked and talked untill they are blue.. this is something we as a society need to address.
"Talking" doesn't get it, Kelley. DISCIPLINE does. Discipline is a parent's RESPONSIBILITY. They are to make doing the wrong thing as unprofitable as need be.
You can't make people do the right thing, but you can sure make them wish they had...
I bet Vern means hitting his kids by "discipline". Spank much, Vern?
Look up the "Bomb in the Brain" videos by Stefan Molyneux if you want to know what spanking and fear based parenting is doing to your kids.
They will grow up to be evil sociopathic tyrants just like you, Vern. Or maybe that's what you want? The next generation of tryants.
You can talk to your kids, but the tatted up, pierced and drug-addled rockers and rappers sing to them.
I agree with you Dave, except that it goes deeper than simply talking to your kids NOW. It's something that should have been done all along. Kids need focus. They need goals. They need to understand that they will never achieve those goals if they start on drugs and Alcohol. They need to be encouraged in the things they are good in.
All of this has to start with they are 4 and 5yrs old..Not at 16...it's too late then
Nice try proindividual - but you can't educade right wing NUT jobs like Vern. Vern is a typical 1% republican ELITIST - the kind of moron that will probably vote for Romney!
Better to hit a kid than a kid to take a hit (of heroin that is). Why the hell are people so uptight with a kid getting a few cracks on the ass when they deserve? I am not talking about abusing a kid - just some good old fashioned discipline. Parents today try to analysize, use psychology and reasoning. All a damned waste of time. Look at these kids today. Spoiled and out of control. Grab the reins parents - PANSY LIBERAL DEMOCRATICS - if you dish it out, be prepared to take it!
spare the rod, spoil the child...A little physical education to back up words is o.k....trouble is that the Boomers were brought up with this messaage...but now they (boomers) want to appear cool to their kids and their kids friends...so the rod gets stashed in a corner, and instead they use stupid phrases like, "oh johnny you shouldn't do that, I know your life is tough but thats allright it will get better." or " oh johnny, thats o.k. you did your best, but that teacher/employer is such an a$$."...etc. etc.
Proindividual.....I was spanked as a child as were my brothers and we are not at all evil, sociopathic tyrants! I know alot of people that were spanked as small children and are not evil, sociopathic tyrants!! Feelin' sorry for your children and you as a parent because it's hard to say what you'll end up with! More than likely they will be exactly what the world is dealing with now....ilmannered, disrespectful little brats! Don't understand what's wrong with you people that think spanking your child is going to scar them for life!!! WAke the H*** up!!!
but you cant legalize heroine, because it would cut into big pharm profits even more.
heroin is also from middle east. hmmmmm? are there any americans over there???
legalize weed and there will be no issues
Every criminal wants their particular crime of choice to be "legalized".
Only harm and fraud are crimes Vern. Look up the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason, what our country was founded on. It's called natural law. Even St. Thomas Aquinas thought prostitution should be legal, albeit immoral.
Nonviolent crimes and crimes with no victims are not crimes. Them being called "crimes" is the crime.
I can't wait until they make it illegal to not kill your own first born...then you can do it to avoid not following the idiotic law. Martin Luther King broke tyrannical laws to change the law, and so did people of all colors for 100 years before he did it. It's an American tradition called Civil Disoebdience...try it sometime, Vern.
A life dedicated to Christ cane make a difference over any drug addiction
Yeah, right, Elliot....what a sheep.
Sorry Elliott,
Even 10 years ago in my youth group drug use was ramped, I don't want to know what it is like now a days. Ignoring the issue and saying 'my good christian children would never do such a thing' is the same as sticking your head in the sand and saying nothing bad will ever happen.
Sorry
The huge pharmaceutical lobby has recently succesfully blocked legislation that would track distribution/illegal prescription/drug-milling of the drugs they manufactor. Get involved people! Let you representatives know that you know the War on Drugs is failure despite your tax all the dollars being used to fund it. Call or write your State and Federal congressmembers and tell them you are sick and tired of it and are not going to take it anymore!
Don't get high. Problem solved.
Brilliant.
exactly Paulie..Don't get involved in the crap,,and you don't have any problems with it..
I've been saying that for years.
The cartels are not the problem. The idiots who buy from them ARE the problem
So why are there so many extra pills on the streets anyway? do the doctors make money prescribing pills and do they get kickbacks? YES they do. Thats what breaks the ice. its just like the Quaalude epidemic in the 70's and 80's not to mention all the moms on Valium and Xanax... that's where it starts at home most of the time
Also, be proactive parents-- check your medicine cabinets for psychoactive legal drugs like vicodin, valium, oxycodone... even some cough syrups, that can are perhaps expired or still being used. Take them to the pharmacy for disposal or lock them up. Don't give the curious or strug-out people who live with your or visit you an opportunity to score drugs.
Maybe we should look at securing our borders, so that we keep the heroin out. Education and resposibility are keys to stopping abuse.
Right DB-responsibility always follows education !
May I suggest reading "The Pursuit of Oblivion" by Richard Davenport-Hines. The use/abuse of narcotics has been around a long,long,time. And will continue to be a blessing/curse as long as we are on this planet. Prohibition has never worked.
Marijuana is a gateway drug my stapled closed butt!!
Parents need to accept responsibility for their CHILDREN. Stop creating spoiled little monsters. Grow a spine! Observe your kids, ask questions about every damned thing. Teach them consequences for their actions. You do not NEED to beat or mentally abuse a child, all you have to do is talk and react. Teach them right from wrong and lead by EXAMPLE. We, as parents, have the ability to help our progeny excel or fail.
It seriously saddens me to see stories where kids are getting all fersnuckered up on dope of some kind. I know kids are going to do what they want anyway and there is no fool proof method to stop them. Most parents think it is a "battle of the wills" and it is NOT. Your kids are forming their own opinions on certain things. If you want their opinions to become informed decisions, then talk to them. Inform them with facts and not biased b.s.
I do not claim to be perfect but, I have 5 kids ages 20 to 26. Not one has been arrested. Not one, to my knowledge, has tried hard drugs. All have graduated High School. 4 are working on higher education. 1 owns his own business. We have had our issues, as all families do but I am proud none the less.
Marijuana is a gateway drug. Sorry about your butt.
There is no empirical evidence to your claim Vern...sorry about your statism and Mohist ethics.
Vern-1642229
Marijuana is a gateway drug. Sorry about your butt.
That's not the only area of regret you should have in your life ......Stop trying control the lives of people you have nothing to do with ....Are you a tea bagger
Yes he's a neocon...TEA Party was started by libertarians like me...and then infiltrated by sadist statists like him...so then I guess YES, he's a tea bagger, and the Taxed Enough Already movement that started in the 90s by people like me and was co-opted in 2008 is dead. Ugh.
The folks who started the TEA party movement originally are for legalization of all drugs and ending wars...unfortunately, we no longer are welcome in our own movement.
Mr. Rightnow Are you a pothead demo?
Hey Vern, have you had an alcoholic beverage lately?
The doctors over prescribed the drugs so the patient or pharmacist wouldn't bother the doctor with more work for another prescription. If you were prescribed 10 pills, but need more you will have to come back for another visit, more paperwork, another filing to insurance and overall more headache for the doctor. If the same doctor prescribes 30 pills or doses then everything is taken care of at once and it is less work for everyone involved.
Now most people don't use most of the prescribed drug or do other nefarious acts with the drugs like using one on a night of drinking or sell some to make some gas money or they just hold onto them for a later date. These are the pills that your kids are getting into. Sometimes the parents are just pill heads themselves and what is left over the kid takes. Just like some drink the excess beer in the fridge.
With regulation of pill mills and laws and regulations coming through the pipes to curb over prescribing of drugs we now find ourselves in an unforeseen opium epidemic. Supply and demand. There is very little supply of Oxy,Percocet, Roxicet, Tylox, Endocet etc... The price of one 5mg Oxy is $25 the price of one H balloon is $10 and that can get you high longer than one 5mg pill can.
Big pharma, doctors, red tape, parental laziness. It's a multifaceted problem and these are just some of the things that have contributed to it.
It's also a new cycle of a debilitating drug. Just this past 60 years we had alcohol, cigarettes, methamphetamine, cocaine, crack, back to meth and now heroin. It will eventually become an non issue, but only after the worst of the worst die off or clean up and start the road to repairing their life.
Yeah i remember when i first started when i broke my collar(I was perscribed Percocet 10's) from there i went on to sniffing perc 15s n 30s.....then when they cracked down on everyones perscibed pills I moved onto Heroin to fill my need cheaper.....Lucky for me I realized my life was spiraling out of control and thru those same streets I found the miracle cure Suboxen, This is now my 12th day on Subs and I've weaned from 8mg to 1mg and will be done in 2 days. Hopefully I'm Cured and im also hoping People Take Heed to the Epidemic Perscription Drugs have started.
Dan, I wish you the very best.
If I can offer you any encouragement, I'd just like to let you know that if things don't work out, and I find you crawling through one of my windows some night, that I love my family very much, I keep a loaded 12-gauge beside the bed, and I would most likely give something less than the benefit of the doubt in sketchy circumstances like that.
No one cares Vern...you're just a sociopath wishing for a chance to kill. As a gun owner, you make me sick.
suboxen isn't a cure for anything. you should wean off it as quickly as possible and go to a meeting
If you would have read correctly he is weaning off of the Suboxen and congrats to him..,.great job Dan!
and pro individual, you make ME sick...what's wrong with owning a gun? I have a loaded gun in my home and a concealed carrying permit as well in order to protect myself, my kids... my family. I hope I never have to use it but it would be a lot worse to be in a situation when I need it and not have it. And in the previous home I lived in, we were broken into tree times...thankfully we were not home either time but if we were I know I could protect myself against people who intend to do me or my family harm.
The War on Drugs is a joke, and a scheme to dive into the American working class pockets to basically make profits off of something that is illegal and made the same substance legal. Heroin is illegal, vicodin is legal. They are the same fukin thing. War on Drugs= Bull s-hit. Drug companies do not care for you or your health. The point id to make large amounts of revenue and to screw you. Or live in denial that America always lives in and say no its not so, it isn't true. LMAO.
So basically, you're telling us that Reynolds is your haberdasher of choice.
So basically Vern is telling us he's a tyrant and statist control freak in every post.
You got that 100% correct. The drug business is a huge business totally subsudised by the U.S. Government by having the DEA funded. They have spent BILLIONS of your dollars and it is a scam! WE have the largest prison population in the world with private prisons (WALL STREET) getting fat of of you. All we need to do to save billions of dollare is to DE-criminalise drugs. Wake up BIBLE THUMPERS! I am retired from the U.S. Government and an X heroin addict, who reformed himself. This government makes me want to puke, and those who support it are stupid. What choice we make about Everything, is up to us..no one else. The blame stops with every individual, no one else or anything else.
This cop that enforces the law has had a serious wake up call. He knows in the back of his subconscious mind that half the laws enforced is just plain stupidity. He has now succumb to the real hard facts of life. The laws were implemented to make money not to support the peoples well being or rights to actually become "free".
Actually it sounds like good clean fun.
And the police can have as much of my tax dollars as they want, to warehouse drug criminals.
Vern = tyrant
Give all the drug convicts to Sheriff Joe.
Sheriff Joe is a fascist conspiracy nut...and I'm libertarian, nice to meet ya.
I'm smaller govt than you, and free-er market than you. I have more consistent ethics and my logic works without using cognitive dissonance...amazing isn't it?
Conservative or progressive, you're a tyrant Vern. A statist tyrant. Statism is a mental disorder. I hope you get help. It's sadistic issue.
Typical RETHUGLICAN justice right Vern.......
Go after the MINNOWS and GUPPIES (low level drug users, pot smokers)
and let the SHARKS & BARRACUDAS (murderers, pedophiles, rapists, and WALL STREET CROOKS) SWIM FREE!!
Typical RETHUGLICAN "justice".
Now stop that Vern - you are so barbaric...SWISH....SWISH...Why are you such a Rethuglican? Who in the hell comes up with words like rethuglican? Sounds like a real pansy word. Close the closet door behind you.
I've never met a heroin addict that didn't do marijuana first.
Correlation doesn't mean cause buddy. If cannabis was legal then users of it would not be associating with drug dealers who also sell hard drugs. And if the USA did not invade Afghanistan the people there would not be growing opium on a large scale.
Ive never met a heroin addict that didnt drink coffee, drink a beer, smoke a cig, or have sex with hookers first. Those are all drugs except for 1 but the government thinks in Brazil its legal to get a hooker and not pay cough cough American secret service cough cough HAHAHAHAHA
I never met a marijuana smoker who didn't do alcohol first, or cigarettes...or drink milk.
Correlation is not causation.
I smoked weed for 20 years, never even snorted a line, let alone shot up. All I ever did was smoke weed, and only quit because I felt like it out of boredom to see if I could. No withdrawls at all, I smoked A LOT of weed every single day.
I don't drink, don't use caffeine, and don't eat sugar either.
Guess what? Most drug users are not addicts. Most drug addicts are not commiting crimes to feed their habit. Most dealers are not violent. Most dealers also work a real job. Most dealers do what they do to subsidize their income with a few extra bucks to pay bills.
Most people in the drug trade are normal people, and just should be left the hell alone to do what they please since they aren't harming any unwilling participants.
But it's always "let's limit individual rights for the 'good of the collective'" in the so-called 'land of the free'.
Kids wouldn't have as much access if it were legal. Look up childhood alcoholism rates before, during, and after Prohibition. Went up in Prohibtion, down afterward.
Sometimes you must realize the truth and not live in denial, thanks for calling me moron. I see where you stand and how you are. Your insults have back fired on you and made you into a prime example of American trash. What I mentioned is truth. You sir live in denial. Your opinion is biased based off nothing.
Hey, look- parrots!
Hey look, a statist! (Vern)
pro individual. you are one in a million. You only do marijuana and LITERALLY nothing else. Either you are a liar or like a said one in a million. You are, in fact, denial. You came up with some serious BS. As for alcohol we are still doing damage control. 4 decades ago I remember being told about drinking responsibly and don't drink and drive, yet families are getting torn apart, murders, rapes, drunk drivers killing, fighting, live torn apart, birth defects, work accidents all because of alcohol. We have learned to accept this as an outcome of drunken behavior and it is okay. We also will learn to live with the legalization of marijuana and soon other parallel debates such as designer drugs, prostitution, etc. We are a free country but we won't truly be free until we have complete chaos.
I've heard a lot of BS in life, but pro tops most of it
Hey Proindividual - Are you kidding or what? YES - drug addicts sure in the hell commit crimes, they steal and prostitute and perform a number of other crimes to get their fix. How naive are you?
I have smoked pot for over 40 years, I don't do heroin or prescription pills. And I have actually lived with 2 heroin users for over 6 months. Pot leads to something? Prove it. It all has to do with you and what you know. I knew when I lived with those two guys I wasn't going to support the CIA or the other government supported heroin dealers. I also was a fan of psychedelics and realized the heroin just put you to sleep, body high (or low). Didn't improve your thinking. And I thought it was funny when my friends would say 'that was some great junk we did last night, I puked six times.' Peyote may make you puke but it isn't the same thing in the end, and you only puke once. If you want to get over the heroin addiction, get some ibogonine, an African plant derivative, that after one experience, most all addicts are done with the heroin. You can even go back to the junkie friends you have and hang out with them and you won't even have an interest in the heroin. How's that for cure, but, the government won't let you near it.
"And if the USA did not invade Afghanistan the people there would not be growing opium on a large scale"
They have been growing Opium Poppies on a large scale in Afganistan for over 2000 years. Most of the Heroin smuggled into the US comes from Mexico.
vern i have
Thanks USA and NATO! Since you invaded Afghanistan, it has now become the world's #1 producer of opium, making 40 times that which it did before the invasion! Great job bringing in the dope!
The junkie brings in the dope. No junkie= no demand. The war against terror is being fought by brave American men and women in Afghanistan and other places around the globe. The American junkie continues to undermine the security of the nation by his support of drug cartels and unfriendly governments that clandestinely and openly contribute to the destruction of the USA with money acquired from said American junkie.
And yet overall drug use is way down and so is violent crime, especially both among kids. Sensationalism to get hits, as usual via the "news".
And end scene...
Kids are learning to use other drugs that they get from their bi-polar or ADD friends