American heroin epidemic ?

[Boku_]

Heroin is easier for me to get than weed and weed is legal where I live. I'm not exaggerating.

That's a staggering statement Salemcoyote. But being American i tend to believe it.

In my hometown Melbourne Australia we had our heroin epidemic in the mid to late 90's. Boy did the local media really hype up the rate of Heroin use in Melbourne. Our local Tabloid newspaper the Herald Sun ran a heroin fatality overdose toll on the same newspaper page as the road toll.

Back then a whole block on a certain CBD street in Chinatown was a thriving open air market that featured mostly teenage Vietnamese smack dealers asking at random anyone walking past if "they were chasing". This street in Chinatown was busy day and night with video Arcades that never closed and teams of dealers taking turns to play street fighter2 and stand out on the foot path drumming up business. This open air dealing in Chinatown lasted till the mid 2000's because at that time the police and local city council closed down the video game parlours and the cops got their shit together as far as patrolling the area. Naturally all the dealers moved on to other areas a few suburbs away to deal on the street. So now the Melbourne Chinatown is junkie free and clean and family friendly for tourists.

But now in the year 2017 the main drug of Choice in Melbourne and broader Australia is Meth. Compared to the 1990s Heroin really is out of style in Australia now with hardly any newspaper articles on heroin use in the local press but article after article on the so called "Ice epidemic" that has griped both major cities and regional centres in Australia.

It's funny because ice was available in the 90's when heroin was popular but at that time kids wanting to stay up all night high were happy to use old skool amphetamines speed or pills but in recent years the popularity of ice has just surged with both young clubbers and hard core IV junkie users preferring to use crystal meth.

Cocaine may have been the drug of choice in America in the 80's. Ecstasy pills were big in the UK in the 90's but in Australia in the 2000s and 2010s Ice was all the rage.

Sorry for going off topic but out of interest how popular and prevalent is highly potent Chinese produced Chrystal Methamphetamine in North America?

If the Chinese are shipping their gear to Australia they must be sending some to the west coast of America. Although i always got the impression Meth users were all trailer park white trash in the states with groups like out law bikers and Aryan Brotherhood gang being the main players in the Meth distribution scene.

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

I know about prices... but isn't a ridiculously cheap gram of meth in the US has a 1000% markup in Australia. But then it is pure uncut meth sold in grams, nothing less, from what I had been reading here for a long ass time.

 

[Boku_]

As a uk resident I hear on the media and online about Americas heroin problems,and figured this was a good place to get some honest answers to what is happening.is it as bad as we hear via the media,what is the cause of the rising deaths?is it fent ? And responce would be great.peace.

I was wondering are there any news reports in the UK/European media or North American media about the Ice epidemic going on in Australia. I know the level of drug problems in Australia are nowhere near the scale of Europe or North America but the level of population and migration in northern hemisphere countries explains why there is higher levels of drug trafficking. More people equal more money for drugs more demand means more supply. Correct me if i am wrong for the most part people in the northern hemisphere think Australians are fun loving and friendly people from a country that is safe and even though being founded to house convicts 200 years ago is relatively crime and corruption free.

There was a Drugs INC episode after all on the Aussie ice trade so things do go on in Australia despite the fun loving sunny beach going reputation the land down under has.

I know about prices... but isn't a ridiculously cheap gram of meth in the US has a 1000% markup in Australia. But then it is pure uncut meth sold in grams, nothing less, from what I had been reading here for a long ass time.

If it's a 1000% mark up for US to Australia for meth then imagine the mark up for China to Australia or Columbia to Australia. It would be insane the amount of profit for a successful commercial shipment

Yeah drugs are that expensive in Australia that Chinese and Vietnamese criminal syndicates have been known to ship Meth that was originally made in China via Vancouver Canada to Australia. These same syndicates i heard were using Canada as a distribution hub to ship MDMA and ecstasy pills from Europe to Australia. But syndicates using de-tours to smuggle drugs is nothing new. Syndicates shipping Cocaine and Heroin via Africa to Europe and North America has been happening since the 80's. Drugs have even been discovered being shipped via far flung places like Sri lanka or Pacific island's like Vanuatu and Tonga

 

[THE_REAL_OBLIVION]

Vanuatu? Oh boy...anyway, I didn't understand it when people could just drop prices here and Aussies were being scammed on everything but weed and even then, it was a queen for a dime.

I was wondering are there any news reports in the UK/European media or North American media about the Ice epidemic going on in Australia. I know the level of drug problems in Australia are nowhere near the scale of Europe or North America but the level of population and migration in northern hemisphere countries explains why there is higher levels of drug trafficking. More people equal more money for drugs more demand means more supply. Correct me if i am wrong for the most part people in the northern hemisphere think Australians are fun loving and friendly people from a country that is safe and even though being founded to house convicts 200 years ago is relatively crime and corruption free.

There was a Drugs INC episode after all on the Aussie ice trade so things do go on in Australia despite the fun loving sunny beach going reputation the land down under has.

I dunno...The state where Brisbane is, which I think is named Brisbane, I remember reading in an old punk magazine (MaximumRocknRoll) quoting Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys on their only Australian tour that they were seriously scared to be killed, there was like 1000 riot cops in front of the venue where they played people going to the hospital, sirens everywhere, just because the Dead Kennedys were playing there, no violence inside, but the governor of that state was a bit insane too I hear and anyway he said it was the closest place to a Police State he had been in his life and that was in 86. Well I guess since the FBI raided his house in 1993, broke his legs and attached him to a chair and beat him up (and he managed to take Demerol after that for 2 years and stopped right away without issue, that guy...he's something else than other mere normal humans heh) he then discovered it was now in California too.

 

[Salemcoyote]

Meth is everywhere in California. It's basically homeless currency. It's so ubiquitous that nobody really gives it much thought. America has a drug consumption rate that is unparalleled.

 

[Erikmen]

^ Indeed, all drugs included.

As you decribe, it seems that meth is the new crack. Cheap, addictive, available and among the poorest.

 

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All I know is dope down here is so cut a 100 gram barley gives you a nod and weak rush. Where I used to live .1 was a standard shot. Up there they had opana 30 ex. We brought it precooked. Odd consistency but the gel shot was gone and you just toss it in a spoon. I got 2 or 3 shots a day from a 30mg opana. I miss that #4, the white dope. If only I knew someone who got it down here.

 

[34-dihydroxyphen]

The so-called "Opioid Crisis" is entirely mischaracterized, down to it's very name. It should be called the Fentanyl Crisis, as that is what is by and large killing people who would otherwise be alive were they supplied with black market heroin, and not fentanyl marketed as heroin. The proposed "solutions" to this crisis only make things harder for legitimate pain patients (along with creating hassles for those prescribed other Schedule II's, like myself), as pharmacies now rarely have enough supply in stock, and are trained/conditioned to view all Schedule II prescription holders as junkies, forcing pharmacists into the role of police.

Doctors are arbitrarily charged with drug trafficking/distribution if the government deems that they prescribe opioids too liberally or negligently; the arbitrary nature of these prosecutions has made many doctors so afraid, they refuse to prescribe opioids at all. As a result, pain patients are now forced into purchasing black market heroin in order to relieve their pain/alleviate their fear of withdrawal, which is then cut with fentanyl, further perpetuating the cycle.

I think a novel solution to this problem would be to reach out/communicate to dealers, and teach them how to mix fentanyl effectively when cutting. The issue isn't that fentanyl itself is so much more dangerous than heroin; it's that fentanyl is 100X more potent than heroin. These guys are using 20 mg techniques for a 200 mcg drug. The dealers/distributors would have a vested interest in heeding this info, as dead customers mean lost business.

Instead, society would rather wag its finger at doctors, pharmacies, and pharmaceutical companies (who are bastards; just not the primary culprits of this problem), and pass meaningless, poorly thought out changes to law/policy with all sorts of unintended consequences that only end up deepening the crisis rather than alleviating it in any small measure.

 

[BeachBum4u]

The so-called "Opioid Crisis" is entirely mischaracterized, down to it's very name. It should be called the Fentanyl Crisis, as that is what is by and large killing people who would otherwise be alive were they supplied with black market heroin, and not fentanyl marketed as heroin. The proposed "solutions" to this crisis only make things harder for legitimate pain patients (along with creating hassles for those prescribed other Schedule II's, like myself), as pharmacies now rarely have enough supply in stock, and are trained/conditioned to view all Schedule II prescription holders as junkies, forcing pharmacists into the role of police.

Doctors are arbitrarily charged with drug trafficking/distribution if the government deems that they prescribe opioids too liberally or negligently; the arbitrary nature of these prosecutions has made many doctors so afraid, they refuse to prescribe opioids at all. As a result, pain patients are now forced into purchasing black market heroin in order to relieve their pain/alleviate their fear of withdrawal, which is then cut with fentanyl, further perpetuating the cycle.

I think a novel solution to this problem would be to reach out/communicate to dealers, and teach them how to mix fentanyl effectively when cutting. The issue isn't that fentanyl itself is so much more dangerous than heroin; it's that fentanyl is 100X more potent than heroin. These guys are using 20 mg techniques for a 200 mcg drug. The dealers/distributors would have a vested interest in heeding this info, as dead customers mean lost business.

Instead, society would rather wag its finger at doctors, pharmacies, and pharmaceutical companies (who are bastards; just not the primary culprits of this problem), and pass meaningless, poorly thought out changes to law/policy with all sorts of unintended consequences that only end up deepening the crisis rather than alleviating it in any small measure.

Well said and my feelings pretty much to a tee. Not to mention characterizing the problems pain patients face everyday, which unfortunately includes myself. Thanks!