The Midwest/East Coast really need this, since that is where all the powder, fentanyl-laced heroin goes. People are dropping like flies in those regions of the country, while I would imagine the West Coast, where black tar heroin is sold, hasn't seen as much of an increase in overdoses/deaths.
On Facebook here in the middle to upper class suburbs of Baltimore I see friends of friends OD and dying once a month.
I don't understand why as growing up I dont recall such an epidemic, yet I do recall a ton of don't do drugs type of education. Has all those type PSAs & education in schools cease to exist and or not as well funded as back in the 80s and 90s?
Rise in overdoses can be attributed to dealers adding fentanyl (an extrememly strong synthetic opiate) to their product. If a particular salesman has a product which people have reportedly overdosed on will flock to them as they must be selling a stronger product. Another scenario is where the chemical isn't there in the first place and the dealer is simply mixing fentanyl with a filler, due to it's extreme potency (a dose being less than a milligram), making even a small mistake in the mixing can lead to many overdoses especially with tolerant users used to taking larger amounts.
Opioid prohibition ruthlessly selects for opioids that have the highest effectiveness per unit volume -- because traffickers want to make the most profit on uncut material for the same amount of risk.
Fentanyl is actually being synthesized by the Mexican cartels now and added to the heroin before it even makes it to the street dealers. It's getting really crazy.
> So Trump isn't so crazy on this whole wall issue ....
A wall can't stop fentanyl. A single gram of fentanyl is good enough for somewhere on the order of 10^5 doses. It is a trivial matter to smuggle a few grams of substance into a country, wall or no wall.
There are even stronger opioids making their appearance, such as carfentanil, which are 100 times stronger than even fentanyl. Only 19 grams of carfentanil a year are enough to satisfy current US medical demand for this substance.
Walls or Mexico cannot stop the war on drugs and the lopsided, perverse incentives it sets up, and the thousands of lives it ruins. That is entirely up to the American public and their representatives.
Immigrants are not flooding from Mexico to the US. The number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico living in the US has been declining. These numbers are through 2014.
Walls don't keep drugs out. The corruption is largely due to the fact that the US keeps drugs illegal and in the hands of criminals while being the source of demand for drugs.
Umm please read I do not think building a wall is needed.
Also before you downvote I'd love to hear your thoughts as to why Mexicans come here illegally and in large quantities... why are they not staying in Mexico? Why is it not a country of wealth, opportunity and prosperity for its people like the US and Canada? Do you not think that's something worth questioning and trying to address/fix for all Mexicans?
You're essentially repeating yourself while not acknowledging the responses you've received to your previous comment. For one, the idea that Mexicans are immigrating to the US illegally in large numbers isn't supported by current stats.[0] If you have other statistics available, please share them.
Black-tar is, as the name implies, a black (or very dark brown) compound, generally pretty sticky (though it can be dried into a powder). White powder heroin is, as the name implies, a white powder.
Fentanyl is a white or yellowish powder.
For a variety of reasons, it is far more common for white powder heroin to be laced with fentanyl (which is hundreds of times more potent).
"Powder" Heroin is most often light-ish brown/tan (the darker the better, generally -- with exceptions of course). It will still cook up to the familiar color of motor oil. White powder is almost unheard of these days. While generally considered to be of better quality, it's often referred to as "China White" -- I believe this stems from the heroin boom of the 1970's when most of it was imported from the Far East after the Vietnam War era.
In addition to what the others have said, black tar is essentially heroin that is made by skipping a few of the steps in the "standard" heroin synthesis process. Whichever cartel controls West Coast distribution decided that was good enough for them, and customers would buy it regardless. I'm actually curious as to why the other cartels bother producing powder heroin at all.
Presumably because it packs to a higher density and is purer, and since sentencing is done by weight irrespective of how much active drug it actually contains, it winds up being essentially a forcing function toward making the strongest substance you can. Such laws therefore are almost entirely responsible for why drugs have gotten stronger and stronger over the years, with the increased risk this brings.
"People are dropping like flies in those regions of the country, while I would imagine the West Coast, where black tar heroin is sold, hasn't seen as much of an increase in overdoses/deaths."
'Harm reduction' programs don't really do that much.
Since the 'Insite' facility in Vancouver opened - there has been basically no change in the number of users or ODs. The area around the clinic is still a zombie land - it's the only place in all of Canada that I'm afraid to walk down the street in the middle of the day.
There has been a massive spike of ODs in Vancouver lately, but it's mostly due to fentanyl and other purity issues.
I agree that 'doing heroin' should be treated more as a social health issue, and less as a criminal justice issue, but I'm entirely doubtful of the efficacy of shoot up clinics. They cost a lot, and the money just might be more effectively spent on other kinds of 'soft interventions'.
I think the real value of the clinics boils down to the fact that while there, users can be convinced to join 'get clean' programs, and that the health workers can have 'trusted and direct' access to the community.
And some 'harm reduction' efforts can be very destructive: in the Innes Road prison in Ottawa - if you go in with a heroin addiction - they give you three doses of "Diacetylmorphine" or whatever (similar to heroin) every day - and basically they keep their prisoners hooked. The users will go crazy in the time leading up to their 'dose time', screaming, banging on the door etc. etc..
'Reducing short term harm' by giving people doses of a drug, several times a day, for months or years - is utterly worse than what those people might have to do were they to have to spend a few days in 'hard withdrawal' and then a few weeks in less severe withdrawal.
Keeping prisoners hooked on extremely powerful opioids I think is a terrible form of 'cruel and unusual punishment'.
'Withdrawal' is not the end of the world, and usually it's not dangerous. It's inevitable. It's the 'first and most obvious step' of recovery. And the only path to recovery. And something and addict must eventually do - so 'going to prison' if anything, should be an opportunity to get them off of heroin. At least in a controlled environment they can be monitored during initial withdrawal, and have zero access afterwards for some time while in prison. (And yes, it's entirely possible to limit contraband drugs in prisons).
FYI - I'm not suggesting prison for users, but at least those who go to jail for other things, it's a chance to get clean.
Sadly, it seems there's just as much ideology and politicization of the 'harm reduction' approach as there is 'it's a crime/moral issue' approach.
