
H: On heroin and harm reduction - nkurz
https://nplusonemag.com/issue-24/essays/h/
======
baldfat
Heroin is growing in use in the USA and Europe, but not where people think it
is. I live in Allentown, PA a 120,000 city that outsiders consider to be a den
of drugs. I grew up in Suburbia in Connecticut with the incredibly wealthy
NYTimes headline in this article “Heroin in New England, More Abundant and
Deadly.”. I saw so much more drugs with the rich kids then I do in my
neighborhood. The local high school that released a letter stating that heroin
is being abused and a string of over doses are claiming the lives was not my
inner city school district but the richest school district in our area,
Parkland.

My wife is from West Virginia and that place is unbelievable in the amount of
heroin use. [http://wvpublic.org/topic/needle-and-damage-done-west-
virgin...](http://wvpublic.org/topic/needle-and-damage-done-west-virginias-
heroin-epidemic). I am scared for my life all the time since I believe 20% of
the people are high on something while driving.

I don't understand the draw but I can tell you that I can't trust my friends
that got caught up in this stuff. They will steal and lie just to keep on this
stuff. It is so sad to see after 20 years they still haven't beaten this beast
even though they have spent tens of thousands of dollar on treatment and told
that once beaten it stays dead unlike cocaine's psychological addiction.

After reading this article I have no idea where I sit concerning safe site or
needle distribution centers or all the other treatments. I just feel bad for
all the family and friends that are going to be hurt and abused due to this
addiction cycle.

~~~
oxide
I think that as time goes on, a lot more of these medium sized communities
where heroin and other opiate abuse is taking hold are going to have to make
some decisions regarding safe injection sites and needle distribution.

To the community it should hardly be more than another office building or
truck on the street, IMO.

It's certainly preferable to an ocean of used syringes in the gutters and
unchecked spread of disease.

Then again, the NIMBY mindset hasn't changed at all over the years.

~~~
baldfat
I usually pick up and throw away a random used needle once a year in the city.

I think no one sees this in the suburbs because of the ability to have more
privacy there. BUT I was hiking in the middle of the Adirondack Mountains 10
miles form any dirt road and I ran into several used needles and a burnt
spoon.

------
brandoncordell
In Maine we're dealing with it, on seemingly, epidemic levels.

I don't know how it was in the 80s and 90s, but in school it sure seemed like
heroin was in the slums. This is absolutely no longer the case. The rise of
Oxycontin and other pain killers being abused recreationally and having the
steady supply slow to a crawl has led to more and more people opening up to
the fact that heroin doesn't have the stigma it once did. It's no longer some
devil drug that you inject into your arm with a dirty needle in some dark
alley.

"It's the same as oxycodone? I don't have to inject it, I can just snort it?"

It's super easy for kids these days to be swayed to use it. "What do you mean
it's 3-5 times CHEAPER for the same exact high?!" This is why heroin is in
suburbia and rich neighborhoods, there's no longer a distinction, a dividing
line, between heroin and "yuppie heroin" (pain killers).

Growing up in a relatively small town in Mass, I had never seen it, heard of
it being sold, or known anyone (friend's friends/family, etc) to use it. Now,
I know for fact it's big in the town. In fact, someone got arrested not that
long ago for having a KILOGRAM of heroin and a KILOGRAM of cocaine, not two
streets from where I grew up.

I support over the counter Narcan (I honestly can't see how some people
don't...), I support safe injection sites with counsellors present, I support
needle exchanges, and I support REQUIRING all pharmacies to sell needles to
anyone who's over the age of 18.

The heroin epidemic needs to be treated as a health issue. We don't need to be
putting every user we find in prison. Why not break the cycle? Why not figure
out why they're using and try to help them?

I'm not sure if it's well known or not, but opioids in general are fairly
rampant in the IT world. I help a friend (an ex-addict) run, what is
essentially, an anonymous (online) NA meeting for IT professionals. We
sometimes have 500 people in a single meeting. You'd be surprised the type of
individuals that are addicts. When you make good money you can actually use
and still have a job, still have a car and a home, etc.

