Heroin abuse at 'epidemic' level in South Florida -drug report

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Heroin abuse at 'epidemic' level in South Florida -drug report

BY ZACHARY FAGENSON
MIAMI Thu Jan 30, 2014 6:44pm EST

(Reuters) - A high-profile law enforcement crackdown on prescription painkiller abuse in Florida has addicts turning increasingly to heroin, resulting in the highest number of overdose deaths and hospitalizations in recent years, a report on drug abuse said.

Deaths from heroin - now more potent and widely available than ever - rose 89 percent statewide from 62 in 2011 to 117 in 2012, with the problem reaching epidemic proportions in South Florida, according to a report by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institute of Health.

In Miami-Dade County, deaths jumped 120 percent, from 15 in 2011 to 33 in 2012.

"We're talking here about the mother of addictions," said James N. Hall, an epidemiologist at Nova Southeastern University who authored the report with 20 NIDA researchers nationwide who have met biannually since 1976 to track drug use trends.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/30/us-usa-florida-heroin-idUSBREA0T24D20140130

[Warpy]

1. Not surprising, it's epidemic in parts of NM, too

Keep shoving people farther into poverty, give them no hope of anything better, ever, and then act surprised when they want to numb out.

[enough]

2. And there was the story a few days ago that the Governor of Vermont used the entire

State-of-the-State annual message to discuss the problem of heroin addiction in Vermont.

[pablo_marmol]

3. So very sad.

Doctors profit from writing oxy scripts, then profit again from the lucrative drug testing that accompanies the predictable addiction that follows. Then users turn to heroin to satisfy their addiction.