Afghan farmers harvest raw opium at a poppy field in Kandahar’s Zhari district. This year, many Afghan poppy farmers are expecting a windfall as they get ready to harvest opium from a new variety of poppy seeds said to boost yield of the resin that produces heroin.
The country’s unhealthy appetite for painkiller drugs has led to tighter rules on pill-happy doctors and pharmaceutical firms. But that sensible step is producing an unforeseen problem: the rising use of heroin, used as a cheaper substitute for once-plentiful prescription drugs.
The surge in heroin is creating more addicts than ever, spreading from inner cities to rural spots, and springs from Afghanistan, a Made-in-the-U.S.A. trouble spot for opium production. An ultra-lethal and quickly addictive drug is staging a comeback that can be curbed.
The trend is outlined in a federal report documenting the drug’s dangerous popularity. More people in more places are taking heroin and dying from it, leading public officials to scramble for solutions.
The answers are surprising. A needle-giveaway program was approved in red-state Indiana as a way to curb HIV and hepatitis C infections linked to syringe-sharing among addicts. Other states that once objected to needle giveaways as encouraging drug use are now doing the same. Along with clean needles, the programs offer addicts an entry point into the health care system for methadone, a heroin substitute, and other drug treatments.
Also, naloxone, a fast-acting antidote to drug overdoses, is now carried by police and emergency responders in many communities, including San Francisco. The drug provides a life-saving jolt to block the toxic effects of too much heroin. It’s so effective that health authorities are pressing it into ever wider use. In Baltimore, jail inmates and nightclub strippers are trained to administer the drug in an emergency.
San Francisco isn’t immune to heroin’s appeal. The number of addicts seeking treatment at city health facilities increased 15 percent last year. The use of naloxone to quell overdoses jumped four-fold over the last three years, an indicator of both the drug’s effectiveness and heroin’s widening use, according to Dr. Phillip Coffin, director of drug research for the city health department.
But needle swaps and anti-overdose drugs are only a partial response to a much bigger problem. Heroin remains cheaper than prescription painkillers such as OxyContin, Vicodin and Percocet, turning the drug into a market mainstay.
Once reserved for major injuries or diseases, these brand-name drugs slipped into wider use to soothe a painful dentist visit or an ankle sprain. The free-and-easy dispensing of the pills led to serious abuse and addiction. But when health authorities moved to restrict access, the black market price soared, making heroin a cheaper alternative.
Adding to the problem is a boom in Afghanistan opium cultivation despite a U.S. campaign to destroy the flowery crop. Afghan farmers grow 90 percent of the world’s opium, later refined into heroin. A United Nations drug agency last month warned that record opium poppy production could result in a spike in heroin-related deaths as prices drop and availability widens. The country’s chaotic and corrupt politics mean that there’s zero chance the farm-to-arm flow of heroin will stop soon.
Heroin’s steady march doesn’t come with simple answers. Public awareness of both the drug’s dangers and opportunities for treatment is important. The report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention underscores heroin’s widening use. The rising numbers should warn the public and encourage lawmakers to face a growing danger.
A dangerous drug trend
500,000 people used heroin in 2013, a jump of 150 percent since 2007.
Heroin overdose deaths claimed 8,257 lives in 2013, four times the number in 2002.
Heroin use grew by 60 percent among those with household income of at least $50,000.
75 percent of new addicts were first hooked on prescription opiates such as OxyContin and Vicodin.
A majority of new addicts are young white males.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Heroin use shoots up — especially among young white men
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