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Bluelight Crew
In these rough economic times, another pricey extravagance appears to be waning in South Florida: cocaine.
The city that gave rise to Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs has seen a decline in people seeking treatment for cocaine addiction or dying from the drug. Twenty five years after Miami Vice became part of the country’s cocaine culture lore, Miami is leading the nation in the beginning of the end of America’s three-decade cocaine epidemic, say experts.
The war on drugs had its biggest influence on the purity of cocaine, so drug users paid more and got less. And with a statewide unemployment rate hovering at 10 percent, the scourge that destroyed families and entire communities is being replaced with cheaper, easier to acquire narcotics, according to the country’s leading drug experts.
“It’s not disappearing, but it’s definitely declining,” said James N. Hall, Director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Substance Abuse at Nova Southeastern University. “People are getting half of what they used to get — and this is occurring in the middle of the economic downturn. Cocaine, the most expensive drug on a per-dose basis, is costing more.”
According to Hall’s drug-abuse trends report:
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/...aine-no-longer-the-drug-of.html#ixzz1Y23LnWCv
The city that gave rise to Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs has seen a decline in people seeking treatment for cocaine addiction or dying from the drug. Twenty five years after Miami Vice became part of the country’s cocaine culture lore, Miami is leading the nation in the beginning of the end of America’s three-decade cocaine epidemic, say experts.
The war on drugs had its biggest influence on the purity of cocaine, so drug users paid more and got less. And with a statewide unemployment rate hovering at 10 percent, the scourge that destroyed families and entire communities is being replaced with cheaper, easier to acquire narcotics, according to the country’s leading drug experts.
“It’s not disappearing, but it’s definitely declining,” said James N. Hall, Director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Substance Abuse at Nova Southeastern University. “People are getting half of what they used to get — and this is occurring in the middle of the economic downturn. Cocaine, the most expensive drug on a per-dose basis, is costing more.”
According to Hall’s drug-abuse trends report:
- The number of people rushed to local emergency rooms with cocaine overdoses declined 14 percent from 2008 and 2009.
- Last year, 549 people sought treatment for crack and powder cocaine addictions, down from 918 the previous year. That’s a startling 41 percent drop.
- The number of cocaine overdoses in Miami-Dade County started declining steadily in 2007, when 281 people suffered cocaine-related deaths. Two years later, the number had dropped to 155. Last year’s number of cocaine deaths bumped back up to 198, but experts say that increase was actually the result of more people mixing cocaine with prescription drugs like Oxycodone.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/...aine-no-longer-the-drug-of.html#ixzz1Y23LnWCv
