heroin epidemic

I think I told this story once before here, but this thread is relevant for a retell. One November I get a call to do some work on a rental property in between tenants. One of the things I had to do was run a new 2" drain from the old farmers style country sink down into the basement and into the existing waste stack. 10 feet of 2" PVC a handful a fittings and a cleanup just in case. Flash forward to the end of March. I go back to the same apartment to do some more work in between tenants. Given no information other than toilet clogged, sink clogged etc. I'm there working alone, pull toilet find spoon stuck in bottom. I'm naive so think tenants did it on purpose. Kitchen sink is full of black water with several soda bottle floating, food, etc. Nasty! Go down to basement where my cleanout is and slowly open it. Nothing, dry, clean as a whistle. Run a small hand snake back up towards the sink, hit something, twist push twist push whoosh. I know all that black nasty is coming my way so I put my hand over the hole to contain most of whats about to fly out if I do nothing. Just as my hand hits the cleanup hole, a wave of brown talcum powder looking stuff flies out of the hole and then black water. I'm standing there in a cloud of brown dust when the contractor comes walking in the bulkhead door and sees me, hand over my head, nasty water running down my arm, brown dust in the air. After a short how you doing whats going on, I learn that the house was raided because they were dealing heroin there. How much heroin does it take to clog a new 2" PVC drain? Never even occurred to me it was heroin, until after the contractor walked in. I figured it was just another tenant decides to trash the place on the way out.

Something to consider...

There are commercials on TV trying to sell cures for opioid induced constipation.

It's enough of a problem that someone can make money selling ads on national TV.

Getting back to the OP, there is a massive influx, but I think the idea of container ships is wrong. I think that it is death by 1000 cuts, meaning that there is an amazingly large number of smaller carriers. For every guy or gal you see getting busted with heroin bags in their stomach, I bet there are 50 more who don't get caught. Concentrating on Miami or the Mexican border is also naive. These are the most direct routes, but they are also where the most cops are. So I expect it is coming down from Canada, in from small port cities along the coast, in airline shipments, in cargo on trains, in underground tunnels in North Dakota...the more routes they have the more efficient they can be and the harder they are to stop.

In reply to pinchvalve:

I buy most of it, other than the "down from Canada" part. Or maybe I haven't seen the big old poppy fields that must be here. Marijuana from B.C., sure. Heroin? Don't think so.

In reply to Streetwiseguy:

Doesn't mean it's grown in Canada, just moved through there.

The rise of heroin is related to the increasing legality of marijuana. Weed was a big cash crop for the cartels, and just like whiskey after prohibition, now that it is becoming increasingly legal, the black market profitability is crashing fast. There's already a great network of supply and distribution in place - they just switched commodity.

The increasing strength and fentanyl fortification is driven by simple competition.

Streetwiseguy wrote: In reply to pinchvalve: I buy most of it, other than the "down from Canada" part. Or maybe I haven't seen the big old poppy fields that must be here. Marijuana from B.C., sure. Heroin? Don't think so.

Its coming in from overseas. Afghanistan eh?

I was just prescribed some narcotic pain medication yesterday for my back. I'm looking forward to my new heroin addiction.

In reply to Nick (Bo) Comstock:

I will give you this advice...don't tell anyone you have it and don't talk about pain or meds for pain. You could easily set yourself up to the target of theft or break in.
You may answer back,"but I don't know anyone who..."
Trust me, they are out there and you are right, you don't know.

I'd be afraid to take those pills...seriously...

In reply to John Welsh :

Oh, I know. My sister in law was going out with a guy a long time ago. He was in law school, came from a family with a lot of money. Drove a brand new BMW 7 series. He wasn't a party person at all, he was by all indications a stand up guy. My in-laws loved him. My wife came to me one day and said all her migraine medication was gone. He was the last one in the house the day before. I told her to ask her sister about it but she was too afraid of starting trouble in the family. A week later they found him od'ing in his car in a parking lot in a small town. He eventually came clean that he had stolen all of her medication as well as her parents. Apparently he had been hooked for a very long time. My SIL had no idea, his parents had no idea. No one knew, and he gave no outward signs that he was hooked on anything. My SIL broke up with him but I think he turned his life around, I know he passed the bar exam and married another woman and they just had a kid a couple months ago. You never know.

I knew a guy that lived about 4 doors down from me in Bryan. I didn't know him well, but he and his wife were in the local biker community and I would occasionally see him at a bar, party or shop. He always wore long sleeve T shirts. Everyone thought he just liked long sleeve shirts, until he got busted for heroin.

mndsm wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: In reply to pinchvalve: I buy most of it, other than the "down from Canada" part. Or maybe I haven't seen the big old poppy fields that must be here. Marijuana from B.C., sure. Heroin? Don't think so.

Its coming in from overseas. Afghanistan eh?

Last time I looked, we had customs and police and stuff too... I mean, a guy could backpack over the pole from Russia, and that border isn't terribly well attended, but I think the hundreds of smuggling tunnels coming north from Mexico might be a wee bit more practical. Plus, while it is the longest undefended border in the world, the US- Canada border is not exactly unattended.

I'm not saying we don't have drugs here. Vancouver could keep the narcalone or whatever its called people in business single handedly. I just don't think we are a big source for American narcotics.

Now I know why I get weird looks sometimes when I wear long sleeve t-shirts. I just like long sleeves man!

Back to the OP.

Won't even begin to speculate on drug importation to the US, that's been hashed over since the 60's, way above my level.

Locally though, biggest county drug bust ever last summer. Major suppliers were all small business owners, two of which were used car dealers, the other a salon product wholesale supplier. None were ever viewed as users or thugs.

Maybe business was slow, they thought they could wash money through the business or just got greedy, never know. IRS was major in the investigation.

The 40 or so other dealers were second level or lower on the county level, all w/ no conscience as far as most of us are concerned to damages from heroin addiction, put 'em all away to rot.

Thing is supply only took a small hit for a while, there's always somebody to take their place.

I think drug addictions in this country represent a few different types of pervasive stress and the escapism to relieve that stress within the USA and elsewhere.

I continually beat this drum, but I think the working middle class prescription drug addiction is due in part to the amount we work and how rarely we actually have time to ourselves. You can't afford retirement or medical expenses unless you're working full-time, but if you're working full-time, you're also likely getting somewhere between zero and a few weeks vacation every year for your entire working life. As said, it's not about easing pain, it's about easing life.

That translates into the unemployed areas of the country as well. When you don't work, you're bored, you're injured or in pain, you can't afford surgery, it's easier to medicate yourself, and it's a bonus if that medication makes you feel awesome about life as well.

I29, 7 miles from my couch, goes from Canada to Kansas City. Last I heard more drugs are transported on that chunk of road than any other road in the country.

In reply to Nick (Bo) Comstock:

Good luck. I had Valium(before)and Percocet(after) for my surgery in September.

They botched the RX for Valium. It was supposed to be for 1 pill, but wrote it out for 60. When I got it filled, the pharmacy told me it wasn't properly coded, so they could do 30 or get it straightened out. I opted for the later and just got the 1.

After my procedure I was given a script for Percocet that I didn't fill, simply out of fear of controlled substances. I got by with ice packs and Tylenol.

I could have easily had multiple buyers for both.

mtn wrote:

T.J. wrote: In reply to GameboyRMH: I still don't understand. If you are addicted to Oxycontin and can no longer get it, instead of moving to something worse that will kill you, maybe you should move to getting clean. I don't understand, but I guess there is no logic when it comes to addiction.

If you don't understand it, you don't understand addiction. A kid I knew from elementary school just passed away from an OD. Sad times.

I saw through facebook semi-recently that a friend from high school had died suddenly. I assumed it was a car wreck. Nope, heroin overdose.

I was thinking more about the heroin epidemic and I'm thinking that all the various causes all played a role in creating it. I think that the US overthrowing the Taliban led to more raw material to produce product, legalizing pot has caused the drug cartels to change to heroin instead of dealing in pot, the bad economy has created a lot of out of work people with no hope who are looking for an escape, the docs and the pharma industry pushed way too many prescription painkillers on folks getting them hooked, the government approved drugs that maybe they shouldn't have because they work for big pharma. Heck, I think even the fact that first responder types now carry narcan with them removes some of the risk of ODing, so that may lower the initial inhibition to taking heroin in the first place for some, needle exchanges and such may prevent the spread of blood borne diseases but may also encourage people to shoot up and become addicts.

I'm thinking that all of these play some sort of factor into the epidemic. Maybe there are other factors as well, but whatever the cause it is a sad state of affairs that is causing a lot of havoc for a lot of communities and families.

Tainted-laced dope is a motherberkeleyer, as are the people that put other chemicals in it. This past Sunday I had 2 Flint police detectives knock on my door to tell me that the love of my life died in a McDonalds bathroom shooting up. She had been fighting the addiction for years and was doing great until 2 weeks ago. Something triggered her to start up and she was hiding it from me. I love her with every fiber of my being and miss her horribly. This has been the worst week of my life, I do not want anyone to go through what I am. RIP Carrie.

Braden

Sorry for your loss.

Sorry, man. Hope the support from this group helps- that's something I can't honestly comprehend, very tough situation.

In reply to pilotbraden:

I'm not going to say something pat to try to make you feel better. But I am sincerely sorry for your loss.

I'm sorry, buddy.

I am so sorry for your loss.