Drinking issue at Dartmouth!

MNFlyer
Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:11:42 +0000

Yes, heroin is now on the menu of drug users in a demographic not previously linked to heroin use–affluent white suburbanites and residents of small towns.

My small town, 45 minutes south of Minneapolis experienced an outbreak of opiate/heroin use starting around 2007. IIRC, our local school system referred 13-15 high school students to treatment for opiate abuse during the 2006-2007 school year. This was a huge surprise when it came to light. Since 2007, nine locals have died. Most of them were in the 20-30 age range, with a couple of 40+s. From what I can tell, most came from stable, reasonably affluent homes. Most had two parents in the home and participated in school activities etc.

In our town, and from what I’ve read about other localities, use often starts with pilfering of prescription drugs from family members. Oxycontin is said to produce a heroin like high when it is crushed before taking. That busts up the “time release” properties of the drug–leading to a quicker, more intense high.

Oxycontin is very expensive and supplies are unreliable. Heroin supplies are reliable and it has become much cheaper and much more pure in recent years. A person can start supporting a habit for $10-40/daily. The habit grows from there. People from our small town took turns driving to Minneapolis to purchase heroin from gang sources. They’d share/resell the drug to others. We’ve had three people charged for murder (3rd degree, I think) when the people they brought the drugs to OD’ed and died. The parents of two of those charged are successful, prominent locals. (get my gist–it can happen to anyone, regardless of family background.)

A Twin Cities TV station just did a report on this problem–not focusing on my town, but the suburbs of the Twin Cities.

[Investigators: Heroin Slips into Suburbs](FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul)

Here are a couple of more links of interest regarding heroin use in the affluent suburbs around Chicago. The study is long, but really worth reading.

[Chicago’s Heroin Problem Worst In The Nation, Says New Study](Chicago's Heroin Problem Worst In The Nation, Says New Study | HuffPost Chicago)

[Heroin Prevention - Robert Crown Center](http://www.robertcrown.org/heroinPreventionFacts.shtml)

I think this topic deserves its own CC thread, and should be broken out from this thread. If I have time over the week end, maybe I’ll do that. (or if someone wants to do that for me, that’d be cool too.)