|
The New Heroin Epidemic
An article by the New York Times,
23 March 2003, (Daisy Hernandez) reports
that the rate of admissions for heroin addicts at New York state
licensed rehabilitation centers is now rivaling those for cocaine
and crack addicts in the last five years, according to a November
Report by the National Drug Intelligence Center.
Hernandez details that the recent
trends indicated by this study, in contrast to the heroin epidemic
of the 1970s, are due to the rise in use among the "New Generation",
those that are "young, white, and middle class".
Hernandez reports that this trend
is due to the availability of cheaper, better quality heroin the
unknown consequences of the drug. This may in large part be
due
to the attention being diverted in recent years to the crack
epidemic
and in the midwest and west coast the majority of prevention efforts
being focused on methamphetamine. As well as those factors,
South
American smugglers have spent much effort to import the drug to
the US in an attempt to cut out the business of rival Southeast
Asian suppliers.
Reasons why the middle class youth
seem to be particularly lured by the drug, is that whole generations
among poorer demographics have seen firsthand the effect of heroin
on their older peers and parents. Hernandez cites Bruce Johnson
of the National Development and Research Institutes:
"One of the loudest messages
to avoid heroin and crack weren't in the ads, but kids growing
up seeing their moms or dads, close relatives, getting strung
out on
these drugs".
©Copyright 2003. Narconon
California.
All rights reserved. NARCONON and the
Narconon logo are trademarks and service marks owned by Association
for Better Living and Education International and are used with
its permission.
|