Heroin Epidemic

An article by the New York Times, 23 March 2003, (Daisy Hernandez) reports that the rate of admissions for heroin addicts at New York state licensed rehabilitation centers is now rivaling those for cocaine and crack addicts in the last five years, according to a November Report by the National Drug Intelligence Cente.

Hernandez details that the recent trends indicated by this study, in contrast to the heroin epidemic of the 1970s, are due to the rise in use among the "New Generation", those that are "young, white, and middle class".

Hernandez reports that this trend is due to the availablitly of cheaper, better quality heroin the unknown consequences of the drug. This may in large part be due to the attention being diverted in recent years to the crack epidemic and in the midwest and west coast the majority of prevention efforts being focused on methamphetamine. As well as those factors, South American smugglers have spent much effort to import the drug to the US in an attempt to cut out the business of rival Southeast Asian suppliers.

Reasons why the middle class youth seem to be particularly lured by the drug, is that whole generations among poorer demographics have seen firsthand the effect of heroin on their older peers and parents. Hernandez cites Bruce Johnson of the National Development and Research Institutes:

"One of the loudest messages to avoid heroin and crack weren't in the ads, but kids growing uo seeing their moms or dads, close relatives, getting strung out on thses drugs"