Watch: Hooked on heroin-Pill crackdown opens door to heroin in suburbs

Good Afternoon Folks,
The following two stories discuss the serious rise in heroin use by teenagers - in a suburb near you.

The article by Ian Kullgren offers a look into Black-tar heroin making its way into the US from Mexico, the author also tells the story of a young woman who contracted HCV through drug use.

The CBS video covers a heartbreaking heroin overdose, the loss of a child and the mothers mission to save other children from the addictive drug.

Pill crackdown opens door to heroin in suburbs

By Ian Kullgren

 Ashley, who asked that The Dispatch not use her real name to avoid legal consequences, said she became infected two years ago with hepatitis C, transmitted by a dirty needle. She tries to treat her disease with children’s gummy vitamins.

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Sunday August 4, 2013 5:59 AM
 

An influx of Mexican black-tar heroin is causing a deadly wave of addiction in central Ohio and across the state, fueled by drug dealers looking to profit from growing demand for prescription-painkiller alternatives.   

A concerted state effort to curb rampant prescription-pill use in recent years shut down “pill mills” and prompted doctors to cut the number of doses. 

But many medical and law-enforcement experts in central Ohio and across the state say the strategy has inadvertently led to increased heroin use. 

Columbus’ central location between border crossings — the Mexican border, Miami, Detroit and New York — has made it a hub for foreign drug traffickers. Multikilo shipments arrive daily, some worth more than $1 million, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hunter, who serves on the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force for Ohio’s southern district. 

Dealers reap profits of double or triple the wholesale value while keeping street prices well below prescription pills’ in an effort to attract new users. 

One pill can cost $80 on the street. Because of increased supply in the Columbus area, users can buy about a gram of heroin for as little as $5 — less than a pack of cigarettes, said Orman Hall, director of the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services..... 

Officers with the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Franklin County sheriff’s office and the Columbus Division of Police raided eight trafficking houses in June, seizing 11 kilograms of heroin and $115,000 cash, and arresting 16 Mexican nationals for operating a drug ring in Hilliard, the Far West Side and Grove City. 

Black-tar heroin — a black, sticky substance that looks like coal — is made exclusively in Mexico and started appearing in Columbus in 1998, said Sam Quinones, a Los Angeles Times reporter writing a book about heroin in the Midwest.

Continue reading @ THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Hooked on heroin in the suburbs

Source - CBS

Heroin, the scourge of a by-gone era and widely perceived to be a thing of the past, is making a resurgence, and its reach is spreading into suburban communities across America. Maureen Maher of "48 Hours" reports on the troubling rise in heroin use among suburban high school and college-age kids.