Police Say Heroin Use Increasing Across US
Across the US, law enforcement agents are reporting an alarming rise in the use of heroin as prices drop and availability increases.
ABC News reports that in Sacramento on July 30, federal prosecutors indicted 21 people on charges of trafficking 440 pounds of heroin into California; on July 25 in New York's Suffolk County, police arrested two men with 17 pounds of uncut heroin in the biggest bust of its kind in the county's history; and on July 21 in Palo Alto, California, authorities nabbed a gang member with 70 pounds of heroin stashed inside a Lincoln Town Car.
The growing numbers of arrests and deaths reported around the country point to a resurgence of the drug that hasn’t been seen since the 1970s. And authorities say that today’s heroin is much more potent than it was three decades ago. It is also being used by younger people, who are moving from prescription pills to harder drugs.
"One thing with higher purity is that ... kids can get hooked much faster," said Special Agent Michelle Gregory, spokeswoman for the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement. And the purer heroin that is being sold on the streets today can be snorted, making it a more "user-friendly" for people who are averse to needles.
While heroin is produced in Afghanistan and Myanmar, most of the heroin sold in the US is cultivated in Mexico and South American and typically known as “black tar” because of its stickiness, according to the DEA. But a more potent form of powdered heroin is becoming more prevalent.
The rise of availability of the drug in California is pushing prices down dramatically. Special Agent Bob Cooke of the San Jose, Calif., office of the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, said that cost of an ounce of heroin is around $250, compared with $800 a decade ago.
This could be because Mexican drug trafficking organizations have a surplus of the drugs because of the deadly government-led crackdown on the drug trade there, which means traffickers could be pressuring dealers to buy heroin along with other drugs.
The growth of the heroin trade in Afghanistan could also be having an effect. In a 2006 DEA report obtained by the Los Angeles Times, the agency said Afghanistan's poppy cultivation is becoming the fastest-growing source of heroin in the US.
Heroin is also becoming appealing to many young users who have become addicted to prescription narcotics like OxyContin because the two drugs produce a very similar high, according to Agent Cooke.
There has also been a rise in overdose deaths around the country. In the first six months of 2009, officials in New York's Nassau County have reported 25 heroin deaths, compared with 46 in all of 2008 and 27 in 2007. Suburban Chicago has recorded about 31 heroin-related deaths this year.
