Things
are getting scarey around here!, Where is it you ask that I'm talking
about? I'm talking about everywhere in this country, every nook and
cranny. From New York City to Oak Harbor, Washington and from Chicago,
Illinois to Corpus Christie Texas.
Now some of you may think that I am talking about terrorism, the flu, crime in general or maybe all the different diseases rampant around the country, but I wish that is what I was talking about. The thing that I personally think is making this country scarey, much scarier then this country has ever been.
This thing that is making me scared and should be making you scared is something that probably most people never thought would effect your life and that would be heroin.
Now right now you may be thinking to yourself "oh come on Duane, heroin is the skid row drug, the gang drug, the drug of choice for the homeless in New York City, Chicago, San Diego or Dallas but not Oak Harbor, Washington or Corpus Christie, Texas". Well guess what it's true.
I recently finished my internship as a Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselor and have always had a passion to help those people affected by substance abuse addictions because in one form or another addiction has affected my family since I can remember. Now because of an addiction of my own, which happens to be an addictions to news, current events and politics.
Because of the fact that I try to read and watch everything I can when it concerns news, current events and politics I am constantly on the internet browsing through news sites from around the country, well for that matter from around the world and because of my passion for helping others with substance abuse problems I tend to gravitate toward stories regarding alcoholism and drug use.
What I have noticed in the last year, but increasingly more so in the last few months heroin is starting to become the illegal drug of choice for people of every race, sex, economic back ground and geographic location. It is no longer the skid row drug that many of us grew up thinking it was.
I have noticed this increase in two ways, the first is like I said just by browsing the news station web pages online, just going from local station to local station and reading the news, originally I started reading more local news stations from around the country because I was startled to see in my local news in the San Diego area that there would be a report almost on a daily basis about some type of traffic accident involving a driver under the influence of some type of substance, usually alcohol but sometimes it would be something else like heroin or crystal meth.
Then something else started to perk my interest, the mention of heroin more and more in the news and what got my interest was the reports of who was being arrested for selling, possessing, and being under the influence of heroin and it wasn't the homeless guy living on the bench on the corner or the gang member in the "hood" but it's the dad and mom on main street, the mechanic in the local garage, sales clerk at JC Penny and the lawyer handling your divorce not to mention the police officer shaking up the dealer and keeping it for him/her self.
The most heart breaking new user of heroin is the veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq who where injured on the battlefield or by the improvised explosive device who have been pumped full of opiate pain killers during the treatment of their injuries. Once they reach the point of recovery where the military no longer requires them to be on active duty they are either medically retired or discharged and turned over to the Veterans Administration for treatment at a VA Hospital where normally the dosage of narcotic pain relievers are reduced or completely cut off.
When an injured veteran is under the care of a VA Hospital most time's the dosage of narcotic pain relievers they have been treated with are greatly reduced or cut off all together. When the dosage is reduced after being use to larger dosages for long periods of time it is almost impossible for them to be able to cope on the smaller dosage and will run out of their medications before it is time for their next doctors appointment and because they are addicted they have to find opiates somewhere else or go through with drawl symptoms which by this time is worse for them than actually feeling the pain they where originally prescribed the medication for.
It is nearly impossible today to get prescriptions from various different doctors than it was 10 to 20 years ago when it was fairly simple to go "doctor shopping" as they call it to get multiple prescriptions from multiple doctors for the same narcotic and because of this wounded veterans have had to look else where to get opiates.
That else where is the local drug dealer who will normally have a pretty good list of the different drugs they could sale you, and that list will usually include the same pills the veteran has been taking, however even though the local drug dealer may have those pills, there still exists a problem for that veteran, the cost. The cost of narcotic pain pills on the street are very high, especially in states that have stricter prescription laws.
So you may be asking, what does this poor veteran do? Well since they are already in contact with the drug dealer they have to rely on the dealer for a suggestion and today because (believe it or not) of the war on terrorism the cheapest alternative is heroin. Because the majority of the worlds supply of the Poppy Flower used for producing heroin comes from Afghanistan and in most cases the NATO forces presence has protected these farmers and their crops.
In the process of going after Al Qaeda and The Taliban in Afghanistan these Poppy farmers have been better able to put their product on the world market, the heroin producers by the product which is the raw extract from these flowers and produce more heroin than any other time in history.
Many of these farmers that US and other NATO forces are protecting are either Taliban themselves, Taliban family members or Taliban Supporters and the money goes to the Taliban forces which they spend on more weapons to injure and kill more service members.
Unwittingly in our war against terrorist we have helped the heroin trade become stronger and bigger than any time in history and because of this the heroin itself has become relatively cheap to buy on the street and has caused a self consuming circle.
So there you go that is what is making this country scarier, one of the most addictive drugs in the world has come from being the drug that everyone thought of as the skid row drug to the drug of choice to a growing number of Americans from every class, race and age. There is only two other drugs that are more addictive than heroin and those two are alcohol and tobacco and to come of heroin or alcohol require the help of a physician , so if you think about it, how many American's do you think are addicted to at least one of these drugs, how about all three?
Now some of you may think that I am talking about terrorism, the flu, crime in general or maybe all the different diseases rampant around the country, but I wish that is what I was talking about. The thing that I personally think is making this country scarey, much scarier then this country has ever been.
This thing that is making me scared and should be making you scared is something that probably most people never thought would effect your life and that would be heroin.
Now right now you may be thinking to yourself "oh come on Duane, heroin is the skid row drug, the gang drug, the drug of choice for the homeless in New York City, Chicago, San Diego or Dallas but not Oak Harbor, Washington or Corpus Christie, Texas". Well guess what it's true.
I recently finished my internship as a Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselor and have always had a passion to help those people affected by substance abuse addictions because in one form or another addiction has affected my family since I can remember. Now because of an addiction of my own, which happens to be an addictions to news, current events and politics.
Because of the fact that I try to read and watch everything I can when it concerns news, current events and politics I am constantly on the internet browsing through news sites from around the country, well for that matter from around the world and because of my passion for helping others with substance abuse problems I tend to gravitate toward stories regarding alcoholism and drug use.
What I have noticed in the last year, but increasingly more so in the last few months heroin is starting to become the illegal drug of choice for people of every race, sex, economic back ground and geographic location. It is no longer the skid row drug that many of us grew up thinking it was.
I have noticed this increase in two ways, the first is like I said just by browsing the news station web pages online, just going from local station to local station and reading the news, originally I started reading more local news stations from around the country because I was startled to see in my local news in the San Diego area that there would be a report almost on a daily basis about some type of traffic accident involving a driver under the influence of some type of substance, usually alcohol but sometimes it would be something else like heroin or crystal meth.
Then something else started to perk my interest, the mention of heroin more and more in the news and what got my interest was the reports of who was being arrested for selling, possessing, and being under the influence of heroin and it wasn't the homeless guy living on the bench on the corner or the gang member in the "hood" but it's the dad and mom on main street, the mechanic in the local garage, sales clerk at JC Penny and the lawyer handling your divorce not to mention the police officer shaking up the dealer and keeping it for him/her self.
The most heart breaking new user of heroin is the veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq who where injured on the battlefield or by the improvised explosive device who have been pumped full of opiate pain killers during the treatment of their injuries. Once they reach the point of recovery where the military no longer requires them to be on active duty they are either medically retired or discharged and turned over to the Veterans Administration for treatment at a VA Hospital where normally the dosage of narcotic pain relievers are reduced or completely cut off.
When an injured veteran is under the care of a VA Hospital most time's the dosage of narcotic pain relievers they have been treated with are greatly reduced or cut off all together. When the dosage is reduced after being use to larger dosages for long periods of time it is almost impossible for them to be able to cope on the smaller dosage and will run out of their medications before it is time for their next doctors appointment and because they are addicted they have to find opiates somewhere else or go through with drawl symptoms which by this time is worse for them than actually feeling the pain they where originally prescribed the medication for.
It is nearly impossible today to get prescriptions from various different doctors than it was 10 to 20 years ago when it was fairly simple to go "doctor shopping" as they call it to get multiple prescriptions from multiple doctors for the same narcotic and because of this wounded veterans have had to look else where to get opiates.
That else where is the local drug dealer who will normally have a pretty good list of the different drugs they could sale you, and that list will usually include the same pills the veteran has been taking, however even though the local drug dealer may have those pills, there still exists a problem for that veteran, the cost. The cost of narcotic pain pills on the street are very high, especially in states that have stricter prescription laws.
So you may be asking, what does this poor veteran do? Well since they are already in contact with the drug dealer they have to rely on the dealer for a suggestion and today because (believe it or not) of the war on terrorism the cheapest alternative is heroin. Because the majority of the worlds supply of the Poppy Flower used for producing heroin comes from Afghanistan and in most cases the NATO forces presence has protected these farmers and their crops.
In the process of going after Al Qaeda and The Taliban in Afghanistan these Poppy farmers have been better able to put their product on the world market, the heroin producers by the product which is the raw extract from these flowers and produce more heroin than any other time in history.
Many of these farmers that US and other NATO forces are protecting are either Taliban themselves, Taliban family members or Taliban Supporters and the money goes to the Taliban forces which they spend on more weapons to injure and kill more service members.
Unwittingly in our war against terrorist we have helped the heroin trade become stronger and bigger than any time in history and because of this the heroin itself has become relatively cheap to buy on the street and has caused a self consuming circle.
So there you go that is what is making this country scarier, one of the most addictive drugs in the world has come from being the drug that everyone thought of as the skid row drug to the drug of choice to a growing number of Americans from every class, race and age. There is only two other drugs that are more addictive than heroin and those two are alcohol and tobacco and to come of heroin or alcohol require the help of a physician , so if you think about it, how many American's do you think are addicted to at least one of these drugs, how about all three?
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