Halting Alaska's New Heroin Epidemic

Tchort

Tchort

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KTVA

6/27/2009

DEA: Mexican heroin invading AK
Matthew Simon
Updated: 06/27/2009 10:30:59 AM AKDT


Right now, Anchorage police call it their number one concern: heroin. Suddenly officers are noticing a large number of Anchorage teens and 20-somethings overdosing and dying from this cheap morphine-like high.
"You start it with the poppy plant. You scrape it off and that's really step one. The gum gets made into heroin. Heroin is morphine." That is how Alaska Drug Enforcement Agency Assistant Special Agent in Charge Harvey Goehring describes heroin.

Municipality police are alarmed Anchorage's growing trend suddenly means large numbers of young people are seeking the drug.

Goehring says, "Heroin is more prevalent on the street. You have more ODs at the hospital. You have deaths due to heroin overdoses."

Heroin is killing and hurting young Alaskans at a rate APD is now classifying their number one concern

"We're putting that in line with what the PD says," Goehring says. "And that is significant. Why, specifically, is hard to put your finger on."

Goehring says Alaska's problem starts in Mexico.

"And you think well how does Mexico get to Alaska so quickly. It's a zillion miles. But the reality it's not. You can get on a plane right now and establish sources of supply," Goehring says.

A DEA theory is the Mexican Government's drug war means dealers are turning from the usually smuggled drugs like cocaine, to heroin, because it is easier to smuggle.

"Boarders are tighter now," Goehring says. "You don't have to smuggle in as

much heroin as you do cocaine to make the same amount of profit."
That smuggling seems to be leading to the scene becoming sadly common in area emergency rooms. The drugs come in from Mexico, ending up in LA, Seattle or Portland. Someone in the Alaska drug scene gets a hold of them, and suddenly young Alaskans are overdosing on Mexican heroin.

In 2006 the DEA seized 0.5 pounds of Heroin intended for Alaska. By 2007, that number had jumped to 6.3 pounds. Last year: 14.1 pounds.

Goehring says, "When you go from half a pound to 14 pounds in three years, that is a significant jump."

To combat those numbers a task force made up of federal, state, and local agencies is constantly working. It is almost identical to the task force responsible for bringing down the Ranes and Shine international marijuana trafficking ring.

The task force is specifically made up of the DEA, Internal Revenue Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Postal Service, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. On state and local levels: Troopers, APD, airport police, and other local law enforcement agencies.

The task force most recently brought down a Mexican trafficker trying to smuggle 10 heroin pounds into Alaska.

"I think it's successful because we arrested the Mexican drug trafficking members. We also stopped 10 pounds of heroin from getting into Alaska," Goehring says.

At the same time that means large heroin quantities are coming into the 49th state. With Mexico's drug war future highly uncertain, it appears Alaska's ability to halt heroin, right now, remains just as unknown.
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http://www.ktva.com/ci_12701767?source=most_viewed
 
"In 2006 the DEA seized 0.5 pounds of Heroin intended for Alaska. By 2007, that number had jumped to 6.3 pounds. Last year: 14.1 pounds.

Goehring says, "When you go from half a pound to 14 pounds in three years, that is a significant jump." "

^ Ok but that jump was probably due to the fact that the police were now actively searching for the drug after they confiscated 0.5lbs the following year.
 
I'm from the AK and never even ran into people that have used heroin/or posses it. I don't think its epidemic....there's drugs every where. If any drug were to be an epidemic in Alaska would be the alcohol in the villages or meth in the valley.
 
"Boarders are tighter now," Goehring says
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glad to know we're doing something about the boarder
noticing a large number of Anchorage teens and 20-somethings overdosing and dying from this cheap morphine-like high.
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obligatory focus on the kids, check
"You start it with the poppy plant. You scrape it off and that's really step one. The gum gets made into heroin. Heroin is morphine." That is how Alaska Drug Enforcement Agency
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hm, i see... that makes sense. so why do we have two names for morphine 8)

im just gonna call my morphine "god of dreams", it needs one name and we need to stick to one name. EG yo man i just scored some god-of-dreams (G.o.D. for short)
 
LOL at the idiot claiming heroin is morphine, especially when the senctence before that one describes it as "a morphine like high", which is it? Actual morphine or a morphine like high? Fucking idiots.

14 pounds to be caught smuggled into a state seems like fuck all to me, I doubt there is much of a problem with heroin in Alaska if that is all they have intercepted, either that or their customs suck ass.

Just another shit article making something out of nothing because drugs are an easy scare story.
 
I've read about the tiny Heroin scene in the two largest cities in Alaska. Since the stuff is often smuggled up by addicts/users usually who travel down to Vancouver, Seattle, etc and the lack of a sustained gang running things, dope is hit and miss and often dry. The price is very, very high compared to the lower 48.

Thanks to Sarah Palin and the GOP social crusaders, there are only two Methadone clinics in the whole state last I read. One of them is so full that they only take pregnant Heroin addicts as new clients- it is closed to everyone else. Very sad.
 
Tchort said:
I've read about the tiny Heroin scene in the two largest cities in Alaska. Since the stuff is often smuggled up by addicts/users usually who travel down to Vancouver, Seattle, etc and the lack of a sustained gang running things, dope is hit and miss and often dry. The price is very, very high compared to the lower 48.

Thanks to Sarah Palin and the GOP social crusaders, there are only two Methadone clinics in the whole state last I read. One of them is so full that they only take pregnant Heroin addicts as new clients- it is closed to everyone else. Very sad.
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Yep its true, what a world we live in huh?:\
 
That is really weird, I know shit all about Alaska but I thought it was just snow, villages and natives, ive watched doco's on the alcohol epidemic there but I was under the impression most of the stuff there was made there. I can understand the meth thing coz it'd be easy to make meth there and not get caught but heroin? Thats the last drug id expect to be prevalent there, I wouldnt have thought there'd be that much coke there either...Shows how much I know about Alaska.
 
the_ketaman said:
That is really weird, I know shit all about Alaska but I thought it was just snow, villages and natives, ive watched doco's on the alcohol epidemic there but I was under the impression most of the stuff there was made there. I can understand the meth thing coz it'd be easy to make meth there and not get caught but heroin? Thats the last drug id expect to be prevalent there, I wouldnt have thought there'd be that much coke there either...Shows how much I know about Alaska.
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I suppose its the barren black market economy and huge inflation rate on imported goods that makes it attractive to smuggle fairly small quantites of Heroin or Cocaine (1-10oz) into the state and sell at exponential markup. Alcohol and to a lesser extent Meth seem to be the drugs of choice among the native population, with everything else aimed at the rich white city dwellers. I bet the prescription opioid problem is massive, just as it is in the South and MidWest where the isn't a big Heroin scene (Oklahoma, Mississippi, Kentucky, etc).
 
It's insane how much OxyContin sells for in Alaska. Way more than $1/mg, maybe even $2/mg.

I don't understand why heroin is expensive though - it's almost all mailed in from Arizona, Washington, and California. I doubt they seize much, as it ought to be almost impossible to detect small gram packets of heroin in first class mail.
 
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Interesting article about heroin in Alaska.

I have family who lived there. Was in the state in July of 2000 for a wedding. I was clean at the time. Found out that there was a scene for heroin but it was small in Anchorage from NA meetings I attended there. It was big enough that a methadone clinic was in Anchorage then (not sure about Fairbanks in 2000.) From talking to family- coke has been around for a long time. Quality usually sucks but is sometimes very good. It sells for $80-$100 a gram which is higher than the lower 48 (continental US minus Alaska) average price.

What is interesting about the clinic in Anchorage is that if I'm not mistaken it is run as a cooperative which is patient owned. The patients made decisions about how the clinic was run and highering and firing decisions related to the staff, ect... We discussed this clinic in one of our harm reduction meetings when I was a patient at a clinic in San Jose in 2003.

Thanks to Sarah Palin and the GOP social crusaders, there are only two Methadone clinics in the whole state last I read. One of them is so full that they only take pregnant Heroin addicts as new clients- it is closed to everyone else. Very sad.
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Its that the state is abandoning its libertarian principles which have made the state great. In San Jose back then we had the same problem because the clinics were county run and the county didn't want the independent sector to take up the slack. Anyway I digress.

Cocaine was brought into Alaska by biker gangs and then by Jamaican gangs, of all people, in the late 80s.

The Matanuska Valley, better known for Matanuska Thunderfuck superlative quality gange has become a hotbed of methamphetamine manufacture.

Cannabis was decriminalized in 1975 in the State of Alaska, 1 year before it was decriminalized in the Netherlands. Possession and cultivation was allowed on private land. I think they ended up imposing a limit on cultivation of 25 plants which they lowered to 4. Then it was sadly recriminalized but it is my understanding not enforced very rigourously. There is an article in Wiki on the topic but I'm not sure everything there is acurate.

Anyway, Alaska is a mind-blowingly beautiful state and not the great tundra wasteland many people think. The state is huge and there is a great variety in weather, vegetation, and landscape. Most of the population is in Urban areas- I think Anchorage acounts for half the population. With the cities of Fairbanks, Wasila, and Juneau (the state capitol) acounting for another chunk. In this sense, Alaska is not unlike Australia. It is a wealthy state in terms of natural resources. Every Alaskan resident gets a "dividen" from the oil companies every year which used to be like $2000. it may be more now. So a family of 4 would get $8000 every oct.

Alcohol is a problem among natives and (mostly caucasian) non natives in Alaska. People drink alot during the dark days of winter. But then alot of them don't seem to stop drinking when it gets lighter.

Kinda funny thread about meth in Alaska. The reference to P. Diddy is that he said something about there not being blacks and not being cocaine (or crack heads?) in Alaska (he was wrong on both counts). He later apologized:

http://www.drudge.com/archive/112017/wasilla-alaskas-meth-capital
 
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jspun;7287010 Cannabis was decriminalized in 1975 in the State of Alaska said:
1 year before [/I]it was decriminalized in the Netherlands. Possession and cultivation was allowed on private land. I think they ended up imposing a limit on cultivation of 25 plants which they lowered to 4. T
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They never lowered it. It's 25 live plants, and/or 4 oz dried and cured, or a combination of the two. Alaskans have a state constitution that gives them the right to privacy - a right that extends to growing and smoking marijuana in the privacy of their own homes. Marijuana is still illegal in Alaska; it's just that law enforcement isn't allowed to arrest anyone or get search warrants to look for amounts less than 25 plants in your house. It's illegal if you take it outside of your own house. Distribution is also illegal too, and the DEA and Alaskan narcotics police still make occasional pot busts using informants.
 
They never lowered it. It's 25 live plants, and/or 4 oz dried and cured, or a combination of the two. Alaskans have a state constitution that gives them the right to privacy - a right that extends to growing and smoking marijuana in the privacy of their own homes.
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Thats cool as hell!!!

Wish my state was as committed to sticking to principles. By the way, how many plants are growing at Sarah Palin's house? Does she have a private grow room at the Governor's mansion?
 
Sarah Palin's roommates aren't amenable to having a grow room in the house...
 
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