• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Heroin Business Is Booming in America (Bloomberg)

entremet

Member
On a drizzly May afternoon, a man in gray sweatpants and a black Bengals hoodie sold a half-gram of heroin for $70 inside a dingy market on the west side of Cincinnati. The buyer was a plainclothes police officer; the seller was promptly handcuffed. The bust was the first of two that a team of local police would make that Thursday and one of several heroin-related cases to cross their radios: Three people overdosed, and another was caught driving under the influence. Compared with some days in their district, it was pretty slow.

Heroin has become so pervasive in cities such as Cincinnati and so profitable for the cartels that supply it that even cops admit the sporadic arrests they make have little effect. ”It's really not going to make any impact out on the street," says Detective Brandon Connley, speaking from the damp parking lot outside the market. ”Everybody and their mom sells drugs these days. There's always somebody right there to pick back up."

Millions of Americans got hooked on pain pills during a prescription binge that started in the 1990s and peaked around 2011. As states have tightened monitoring and doctors have reduced dosages, it's become harder for addicts to get prescription painkillers, driving many to get their fix off street drugs. Mexican cartels and big-city gangs have capitalized on the shift, extending networks of dealers across the U.S. and flooding the market with cheap heroin, according to law enforcement.

Cartels have begun lacing heroin with synthetic opioids including fentanyl, making a dose more addictive and cheaper to produce. Overdose reversal shots are helping addicts survive, often to use again, giving dealers a steady supply of repeat customers. With persistent demand and increasingly wide profit margins, 2017 is shaping up as the most profitable year ever for the U.S. heroin trade.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-05-11/the-heroin-business-is-booming-in-america

Crazy stuff. Heroin and meth are doing major damage in smaller town America. Cartels getting involved is nuts.
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
Don't do drugs, kids.
 

Akala

Member
Trapping an addict trying to score is probably the most useless and hurtful thing they could be doing to combat the problem.

EDIT: misread lol. Still a drop in bucket and by their own account ineffective. Need to work on problem demand-side to really make any improvement.
 
Anyway, it will be interesting how US handles this. I'm not affected by this because this drug is used mostly by a specific race
 

phanphare

Banned
I think at times we've defended people using harder drugs so long as they know the risks, know what their money is supporting and it isn't due to addiction issues.

I have never once in my years of posting on this board seen someone bring up recreational heroin or opiate use in a positive light. literally never.
 
I have never once in my years of posting on this board seen someone bring up recreational heroin or opiate use in a positive light. literally never.

I did not specify heroin, and i've certainly never seen that either - i used a more blanket term of hard drugs, but perhaps i should have been more specific given the thread - my point was towards knowledgeable use of cocaine, LSD and mushrooms.
 

NandoGip

Member
I've grown up surrounded by drugs and dealers, weed (obv), pills, coke/crack, molly/e, acid, shrooms, etc blah blah blah.

Out of all drugs, pill smokers, meth users, and heroin users get no sympathy from me. Unless some doctor over prescribed you and caused the addiction, for someone to pursue pills/heroin/meth knowing what happens, you gotta be straight up stupid.

I still advocate for treatment though.
 

Hindl

Member
I have never once in my years of posting on this board seen someone bring up recreational heroin or opiate use in a positive light. literally never.
I'm assuming they mean various threads where people talk about taking acid/mushrooms/ecstasy and are conflating that with opioids/amphetamines.
You take illegal drugs for asthma? You know what I mean.
People get addicted to heroin because they take prescription drugs and can't afford it. You don't get to separate the two
 

entremet

Member
I've grown up surrounded by drugs and dealers, weed (obv), pills, coke/crack, molly/e, acid, shrooms, etc blah blah blah.

Out of all drugs, pill smokers, meth users, and heroin users get no sympathy from me. Unless some doctor over prescribed you and caused the addiction, for someone to pursue pills/heroin/meth knowing what happens, you gotta be straight up stupid.

I still advocate for treatment though.

A lot the heroin addiction is driven from pain killer overprescription.

Patients get hooked on painkillers. The schedule is over. The pain is over, but the addiction remains. Heroin allays the addiction.
 
Top Bottom