Canada - Heroin addiction on the rise among young drug users

[S.J.B.]

Part 1: Heroin addiction on the rise among young drug users (with video)
Denise Ryan
Vancouver Sun
May 30th, 2014

Callum, a 19-year-old from Vancouver’s west side, doesn’t fit the stereotype of a heroin addict, but his pathway to serious addiction is a textbook case of a trend that is alarming experts: the trajectory from prescription opiate abuse to heroin addiction.

In many ways, Callum fits a new profile; young, privileged and with everything to live for, he fell into heroin addiction after developing a dependence on prescription opiates.

His first narcotic high came after he found a bottle of Tylenol 3s, a commonly prescribed painkiller, in his mother’s bedside drawer.

“I ate about 10 of them, and went from feeling out of control to not bothered,” he recalls.

A so-called resurgence of heroin addiction has been dominating headlines around the world. Some call it a “major comeback” and an “epidemic.” Others argue that heroin has never really gone away, but its profile has been raised by the tragic overdoses of young celebrities: Peaches Geldof, Philip Seymour Hoffman and last summer, here in Vancouver, Glee star Cory Monteith.

Read the full story here.

 

[Crankinit]

More ''Oh god, making pharms harder to get caused people to turn heroin instead of just shrugging and giving up drugs, heroin is now a rich white people problem, do something about it! '

 

[_DankOpiAmp_]

Heroin is prohibitively expensive and relatively hard to find outside of of Vancouver as far as I know.

 

[S.J.B.]

Part 2: Woman brought back from the brink of death (with video)
June 2nd, 2014

Outside the glass doors of VANDU, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, a welcoming, if rag tag, band of community members mills on the sidewalk, exchanging jocular asides, faces crinkling with warm smiles.

Anyone who comes through these doors, with few exceptions, is going to be treated as family.

The storefront on East Hastings has been part community centre, part health resource and part home to drug users in Vancouver since 1998. As people bustle in and out the front door, pull chairs into rooms for meetings, check in at the front counter and gather in the lobby, only a few things make this space look different than any other community centre: a bulletin board with a notice for a pot luck, for example, also has a notice warning about fentanyl-laced heroin.

Upstairs at VANDU, Lorna Bird settles into a chair and places a small blue zip pouch on the table in front of her. In it is a take-home overdose kit that contains two ampoules of Naloxone, the drug that not so long ago saved her life.

“Last year I did OD,” she says. “I guess the dope was really strong and I ended up ODing.”

Read the full story here.

 

[S.J.B.]

Part 3: Many addicts still shooting up in Vancouver alleys (with video)
June 3rd, 2014

A young woman is slumped on the sidewalk in the 300-block of East Hastings. With her creamy skin, full red lips and a fresh flower tied up in her ponytail, she bears a resemblance to Sleeping Beauty. She also has a needle sticking out of her arm. Blood pours over her wrist.

She has mangled the job, and drifts in and out of consciousness.

At least here, on the street, if she overdoses, there is a chance she will be saved.

Although Insite, Vancouver’s supervised injection site, is just a few blocks away, many users can’t or won’t use it. They may have been “red-zoned” by the police and can’t go on that block, they may owe money to one of the many dealers that patrol the block, or may require assistance injecting, which Insite doesn’t allow.

This girl has chosen to shoot up just one doorway down from VANDU, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, a community support centre run by and for drug users that, until recently, was trying to stem the tide of public drug use by offering an unsanctioned injection room. It had been running informally at for several years.

Read the full story here.

 

[Crankinit]

They may have been “red-zoned” by the police and can’t go on that block,

What's that supposed to mean?

 

[_DankOpiAmp_]

I think it means you are banned from a certain area under threat of arrest.

 

['medicine cabinet']

Same subject matter written by a different author. Yes, there are more white heroin users now and the majority got started on Rx pain pills. I'm so sick of reading articles like this.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Heroin is prohibitively expensive and relatively hard to find outside of of Vancouver as far as I know.

Curious, but what part of the world does this reference? In the states, it's pretty darn easy and cheap to find some dope - sadly when I was using I used to pride myself on that... In other countries and parts of the world it's easier (parts of SE Asia) and harder (Japan, at least as a foreigner, and where I've been in the UK, although that was more an issue of low quality).

Yes, these stories are old. Whites and non-whites have been using opioids at comparable rates for a long time though, although back in the day (say turn of the 20th century) it was more of a white woman's drug/pleasure. Imo if anything is new now it's that opioid use (heroin use, etc) is just in vogue in terms of sensationalism.

 

[_DankOpiAmp_]

Outside of Vancouver, Canada. As in, within Canada.

 

[ro4eva]

Outside of Vancouver, Canada. As in, within Canada.

It's actually quite easy to find in the Greater Toronto Area, at least IME.

That, and I've indirectly observed that its demand around here is increasing big time. No surprise there considering the 2011 and 2012 ass-backwards amendments to the CSA by Harper and his fellow Conservatards.

I'm really concerned that health minister Rona Ambrose is gonna attempt for a second time to stop eligible patients from receiving their extremely strictly regulated heroin maintenance prescriptions (no carries ever, or so I heard). Can't stand this biatch.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Hah, I guess that was sorta a silly question of mine. Especially in N.America, I tend to find it hard to believe you can't find dope pretty easily in any sizable metropolis. But I digress...

 

[_DankOpiAmp_]

I knew an addict in the Ottawa area and it was heroin one day, morphine the next, dilaudid the next. 50+ bucks for a point and 250+ a gram. I am sure it is more acceptable in inner city Toronto but you are getting raped on price as far as I know. Montreal and Toronto have a less RCMP riddled downtown so supply may be more consistent but there are no ghetto drive throughs like in Jersey.