We're Really Starting to Panic About Heroin in America

[S.J.B.]

We're Really Starting to Panic About Heroin in America
Michael Tracy
Vice
June 9th, 2014

Last week offered a window into the steadily intensifying collective freak-out over heroin use in America. Republican Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana signed into law a bill raising the maximum penalty for heroin distribution in his state to 99 years of imprisonment. Ohio gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald, a Democrat, proclaimed that users of heroin were not being punished severely enough. New Jersey law enforcement officials announced that a sweeping 1.5-month multi-agency anti-heroin “initiative” had yielded at least 325 arrests, 280 of which were apparently “users” only. And Texas authorities said that the amount of heroin seized in the state has exploded by 500 percent since 2013.

What the hell is going on here?

In this era of purported Twitter enlightenment, a notion is sometimes propagated that respectable society has finally transcended the bad old days of reactionary, anti-empirical drug policy, marked by buffoonish, overheated anti-drug rhetoric and an emphasis on meting out retributive justice for relatively minor offenses. Public figures today profess to advocate a more “compassion”-based approach. And it’s true that there has been some degree of transcendence, insofar as the laughably insane rhetoric of the 1980s is heard less frequently today. Yet somehow, right now, in June 2014, we find ourselves in the midst of what can only be described as a classic, full-fledged moral panic, this time over heroin—the kind of panic that inevitably wreaks massive suffering on society’s most vulnerable. To which I respond: Are we really going down this road again?

Considering the United States’ record of enacting spectacularly damaging public policy in response to perceived drug “epidemics“—i.e., erecting a regime of mass incarceration and punishment to counter the alleged scourge of crack—perhaps we are at a moment when our collective sense of skepticism should be especially heightened. Politicians are increasingly advancing proposals to expand law enforcement powers and resources on the basis of questionable statistical inferences; we’ve seen this movie before. Predictably, media are by and large reporting on the issue in the familiar language of fraught moralism, with tacit acceptance of the government’s premises thrown in for good measure. On May 28, even the estimable public radio outfit WNYC matter-of-factly tweeted, “NY Senate Task Force Moves to Attack Heroin Epidemic.”

Wait just a sec, please: It seems a little strange to simply take as established fact that the state of New York is currently beset by a heroin “epidemic”—and even if a heroin epidemic did exist, whether “attacking” is called for would be an entirely separate question. First, we ought to clarify what exactly is meant by “epidemic.” The term is colloquially associated with viral outbreaks and other epidemiological trends. Heroin is, of course, not a communicable disease, but an opioid that happens to be prohibited by the government; no one can “catch” heroin in the way they could catch a virus or a rash. Thus the term is at the very least imprecise, and at worst wildly misleading. And if there were ever circumstances under which journalistic precision should be most demanded, you’d think it would be with respect to declarations of public health crises.

Read the full story here.

 

[neversickanymore]

Yeah keep trying to arrest your way outta this.. couldn't be that the MODERN DAY LOUISIANA SLAVE TRADERS want their private prisons filled to the gills so they can make as much greedy money as they can of destroying people's entire lives as possible.

The reason the threat of jail does not work when it comes to drug users and addicts is because it preventative power lies in fear. Drug addicts do not have normal or rational emotional response. This includes greatly diminished or absent fear response associated with illegally obtaining and useing drugs.

It hasn't ever worked and it will never work. But should provide allot of slaves for the monsters who own and work in the prisons.

 

[Crankinit]

First, we ought to clarify what exactly is meant by “epidemic.” The term is colloquially associated with viral outbreaks and other epidemiological trends. Heroin is, of course, not a communicable disease, but an opioid that happens to be prohibited by the government; no one can “catch” heroin in the way they could catch a virus or a rash

This is interesting because yes, in terms of journalistic integrity or scientific accuracy, it's not really, strictly speaking accurate. On the other hand, there are numerous and striking parallels between the outbreak of a disease epidemic and a drug ''epidemic.'' Of course the epidemic here isn't as much an epidemic of heroin as it is a reaction to an epidemic of pharmaceutical painkillers.

Now, an increase of a tenth of a percent might be worth examining, but that it should necessarily be reason to declare an “epidemic”—with all the term’s attendant hysterics—seems dubious. There is also the potential that a spike in heroin use could be mainly attributable to people switching over from prescription opioids, meaning overall use of opioids may not have increased much, if at all.

Bingo.

Unusually measured and insightful for Vice.

 

[_DankOpiAmp_]

The are just using words of war and sickness to rally the public to fight their imaginary enemy again.

 

[treezy z]

it's an epidemic because white girls in the suburbs are doing it.

 

[treezy z]

also of the 280 "users" i'd be interested in how many are criminals of other varieties such as property crime, robbery, etc. most of the heroin users i've known were unemployed scumbags. i may have gotten unlucky in the one's i've run across though so i guess this might not be a rule just my experience. this statistic doesn't exist though because they didn't all get caught.

 

[Crankinit]

most of the heroin users i've known were unemployed scumbags.

Most heroin users who aren't scumbags tend to keep their heroin use quiet for fear of being labeled as such. The stigma is enormous, so the ones that just perpetuate it float to the top.

 

[weekend addiction]

also of the 280 "users" i'd be interested in how many are criminals of other varieties such as property crime, robbery, etc. most of the heroin users i've known were unemployed scumbags. i may have gotten unlucky in the one's i've run across though so i guess this might not be a rule just my experience. this statistic doesn't exist though because they didn't all get caught.

Yep. I saw a friend of a friend the other day. He was high as shit on dope. Asked him if he had a job (I already knew the answer). He's looking a job. 8)

He said he wouldn't work for less than 10 bucks an hour and he's never had a job in his life. Keep in mind this is a guy with limited skills, maybe a HS diploma?, and no work history. Fuck I don't make that and I work at the one of the best restaurants in the city. He said as long as he can make "blah blah a day hussling" he's good.

I always think of fuckers like him when I hear about a minimum wage increase. When this fucker wakes out of his coma he calls life and decides to support himself instead of mooch off his family and "husslin" then he deserves the same sober awakening I got. Fucking $7.25 an hour.

 

[...]

What an excellent article!

Bobby Jindal is like a cartoon villain. This week he made it illegal to sue oil companies. His brother is a lawyer for BP.

 

[Carl Landrover]

Yeah keep trying to arrest your way outta this.. couldn't be that the MODERN DAY LOUISIANA SLAVE TRADERS want their private prisons filled to the gills so they can make as much greedy money as they can of destroying people's entire lives as possible.

It's the politicians in the area as well. If a prison goes up in a town, the amount of prisoners there are added to the towns population. The greater the amount of people in an area, the more government representation they get. So some areas and states are getting more representatives and more representatives in congress because the population of their area has increased. It's only increased because of the prisoners that now reside there.

It's really crazy how many incentives are given to people for locking other people up. Prison is a pretty big business and has lots of connections.

 

['medicine cabinet']

also of the 280 "users" i'd be interested in how many are criminals of other varieties such as property crime, robbery, etc. most of the heroin users i've known were unemployed scumbags. i may have gotten unlucky in the one's i've run across though so i guess this might not be a rule just my experience. this statistic doesn't exist though because they didn't all get caught.

Same here most of the users I know are just strung out junk bags. They don't rob ppl with guns or knives they panhandle and shit. Those ppl don't need to be in prison.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Heroin users I've met, and I've met quite a few through exchanges and clinics, are either people who look like they totally have it together or look like the stereotypical "bum" or dirty junk box. I'm sure a number of them, whether they looked well kept or burnt out, stole and had committed their share of violent crime or robbery. But compared to people who get just as into methamp or coke/crack, but especially methamp, always seemed to me like there is a higher propensity towards violent behavior and/or robbery on stims like methamp than opioids/opiates like heroin or PPT/PST.

Then again, I bet there's more people doing more fucked up shit while drunk than on all other such illegal drugs, even combined... and I'd venture to guess it's not just because the booze is legal. But I digress...

Nice find OP! Sometimes I really enjoy Vice

p.s. I've driven through towns in CA that wouldn't exist if not for the prisons that were located there. And I mean literally. Actually there are a number of towns/cities like that, in CA especially but throughout the states (tbh I only have experience with such directly in CA, but I find it hard to believe the phenominon is limited to just one state, even if it houses a SHIT LOAD of the country's prisoners).

 

[Droccus]

Maybe the Pscript pain med companies are losing business, and blaming H on stealing their customers? Media propoganda is the quickest way to stir up fear.

 

[LogicSoDeveloped]

p.s. I've driven through towns in CA that wouldn't exist if not for the prisons that were located there. And I mean literally. Actually there are a number of towns/cities like that, in CA especially but throughout the states (tbh I only have experience with such directly in CA, but I find it hard to believe the phenominon is limited to just one state, even if it houses a SHIT LOAD of the country's prisoners).

I literally just drove by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) headquarters by accident yesterday. If I wasn't afraid of repercussions, I'd post some pics of the building. I got a creepy feeling just driving by the parking lot.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I literally just drove by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) headquarters by accident yesterday. If I wasn't afraid of repercussions, I'd post some pics of the building. I got a creepy feeling just driving by the parking lot.

RIGHT!?!?!!?!? fucking creepy mother fuckers. I'd expect to be grabbed with my camera and thrown into the back of a black van sorta deal...

But anyways, I bet they had a really nicely manicured lawn etc and an "inviting" corporate office (as inviting as any corporate office can be I mean).

You should see their satalite offices in the little Podunk towns out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by farming communities (or once farming communities) where their prisons and jails are located that they run. Paints a bit of a different picture. It's like, you're driving cross the country, in the middle of nowhere, and all of a sudden, there's a town that looks like it's flourishing, but then you notice the only industry in the town is some huge as supermax... Our gulags might be "high tech," but they're gulags nonetheless. Fuck CCA