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Heroin in the US on the rise again
The drug heroin appears to be more common in the US than it has been for a long time. Nearly 80 percent more addicts than in 2007 and 125 deaths daily show that the dangerous drug is back in control of the United States. Instead of focusing on law enforcement, the government now wants to try to help many addicts through prevention and therapy.
Heroin consumption on the bus is currently circulating on the Internet
A young man sits in a bus in the US metropolis Philadelphia and injects heroin. He is filmed with a cell phone, but that does not stop him from taking the so-called "shot". The video is currently on online platforms such as "You Tube" to see just under 120,000 users have already clicked. The scenario is disturbing, but unfortunately does not seem to be an isolated case. For heroin is experiencing a sad comeback in the US and is drawing as wide circles as in decades no longer.
In the US, health authorities are registering a serious increase in heroin use. (Image: waewkid / fotolia.com) According to the news agency "dpa" today there are about 290,000 dependents nationwide, which means an increase of almost 80 percent compared to the year 2007. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) statistics, 125 people in the US are currently dying from illegal drugs every day, 78 from heroin and other opioids. In 2014, just under 29,000 consumers fell victim to their addiction. In Germany, there were fewer than 500 heroin deaths, according to the Federal Government Drugs Commissioner, Marlene Mortler, in her annual statistics. Thus, the death toll in terms of population in the US is almost 60 times as high as ours.
Most of the addicts first took painkillers
But why is heroin so common in the US again? "The current epidemic arose mainly from prescriptions for painkillers," explains David Rosenbloom of the University of Boston's Faculty of Medicine in conversation with "dpa." "Up to 80 percent of people who abuse opioids today have previously been prescribed painkillers," the expert continued. Since the 1990s, there are therefore in the US more prescriptions of strong painkillers such as Oxycontin or Vicodin. Since the drugs in the remedies are similar to heroin, people would eventually switch to it, "because it's cheaper and easier to get," Rosenbloom continues.
Robert DuPont, founder of the National Institute for Drug Abuse, disagrees. "Many have already had experience with drugs before they consume painkillers," he says. In his view, the main reason lies in the easy availability: While buyers had to go to insecure quarters earlier to meet a dealer, the access is no longer a problem today. Rather, there is now even a kind of "illegal delivery service". "Heroin is coming to them today," DuPont said at a recent Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) event, according to the news agency..
Heroin already flooded the country in the 1970s
The problem with heroin is not new to the United States. Already in the 1970s, the country was flooded by the drug. Bands such as the Rolling Stones and Black Sabbath made them the subject of their songs; famous punk rock musicians like Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols died of an overdose. At that time there was a public consensus that drug abuse was criminal - and accordingly punishable. Nelson Rockefeller, then the governor of New York, finally prevailed in 1973 that the possession of four ounces (about 114 grams) of heroin was followed by at least 15 years in prison. Beginning in the mid-1970s, the US used drastic measures against producers and traders to destroy poppy fields in Mexico and put hundreds of dealers behind bars. As a result, the drug problem has been curbed and the number of overdose deaths has been minimized from 2,000 in 1975 to 800 in 1980, according to the dpa report..
Therapy and prevention are the focus
Today, however, law enforcement is no longer the focus of the control strategy. Instead, the authorities are focusing on prevention and therapy to get the current heroin epidemic under control. This follows the line of President Barack Obama, who in January spoke of the US as a "second chance country" and argued for a less punitive drug policy. In this context, the Senate passed a law in early March to secure financial support for the treatment and rehabilitation of dependents.
However, according to Robert DuPont, focusing on therapy poses a threat, as the programs could only provide short-term success. "The changes in the addict's brain, however, remain," he explains. In his view, therefore, it would be necessary to take action against drug abuse itself, by preventing the easy availability and socially acceptable consumption of intoxicants in their free time. "We can not figure out this crisis," says the expert. But contrary to DuPont's opinion, politics and administration want to stick to the new strategy. Accordingly, physicians should e.g. In the future, more than one billion dollars are not planned for prescribing additional therapy offers by the president. But it will probably be some time before these measures take effect. "So far, we have not seen a decline," said the "dpa," according to CDC director Tom Frieden at a White House press conference.
Dependents lose drive and motivation
Heroin is produced synthetically from the opium poppy ingredient morphine and mixed with acetic acid. Although it is less common than other drugs such as Cocaine, but it is extremely dangerous and can lead to dependency after the first consumption. In most cases, the drug is injected intravenously ("fixes"), often choosing hidden areas such as the feet, armpits or groin area. Accordingly, the puncture sites are usually not visible to outsiders.
However, heroin use is noticeable by a number of other signs; constricted pupils, breathing problems, listlessness and dwindling interest in friends, hobbies and job. Dependents usually have no motivation for "normal" things, but focus their attention solely on the procurement of the next "shot". Of these, an addict needs about six to ten a day, which is about 0.5 to 3 grams of the drug. (No)