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Related: About this forumHeroin abuse at 'epidemic' level in South Florida -drug report
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.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
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
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Heroin abuse at 'epidemic' level in South Florida -drug report (Original Post)
Eugene
Jan 2014
OP
Warpy
(113,130 posts)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
(13,449 posts)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
(2,375 posts)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.