Health News
- Cdc Report Finds Heroin Use Increased By 63 Percent Since 2002, With Greatest Increases Seen Among Women And Whites
Heroin use increased 63 percent and heroin-related overdose deaths nearly quadrupled since 2002, according to a report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As heroin use has increased, so have heroin-related overdose deaths....
- Poll Indicates Northern Kentucky Is Having A Heroin Epidemic
A poll indicates that Northern Kentucky is the hotbed for heroin use in the state, which has increased since the state legislature cracked down on abuse of prescription painkillers. The Kentucky Health Issues Poll, conducted Oct. 25 through Nov. 26, found...
- As Heroin Use Increases In Kentucky, New Report Shows Its Strong Connections To Abusers Of Prescription Pain Medicines
Kentucky's law-enforcement agences, policymakers and public-health advocates have taken serious measures to curb the state's rampant prescription drug abuse problem, and recent state and national news stories suggest that the reduced supply of...
- Cheaper Heroin Showing Up In Eastern Kentucky As Crackdown On Pain Pills Makes That Trade Less Attractive
About 60 grams of heroin, worth about $8,000. (AP photo)It was only few months ago that Northern Kentucky law enforcement officers and substance abuse clinics began expressing grave concern that heroin was fast becoming the go-to drug in their region....
- N. Ky. Chamber To Ask State For More Funding To Fight Heroin; London Police Make First Known Heroin Trafficking Arrests There
The Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce is planning to lobby the state for more funding for heroin treatment after receiving reports from business and law enforcement about the breadth and depth of the drug problem in the region. Terry DeMio of...
Health News
As prescription painkillers become harder to get and abuse, heroin replaces them in Eastern and Southern Kentucky
Heroin use, which has been a problem in Northern and then Central Kentucky after the state began cracking down on prescription painkillers last year, has been spreading to the Southern and Eastern parts of the state. Heroin is becoming more popular throughout Kentucky because it is cheaper and easier to get than prescription painkillers, specifically opioid medications, reports Valarie Honeycutt Spears of the Lexington Herald-Leader.
While an 80-milligram OxyContin costs between $60 to $100 a pill on the black market, heroin costs $45 to $60 for a multiple-dose supply, reports The Partnership at Drugfree.org. With national and state efforts to curb prescription drug abuse, including the reformulation of OxyContin that makes the drug more difficult to crush and snort, heroin can also be easier to obtain and abuse.
As drug users turn from prescription drugs to heroin to get their high, Northern Kentucky and major cities like Lexington and Louisville are struggling to address the problem, says an Operation UNITE press release. Operation UNITE is a regional anti-drug coalition fighting substance abuse in Southern and Eastern Kentucky counties (map).
Most Southern and Eastern Kentucky counties are just beginning to see the signs of heroin use, says the release. Dan Smoot, CEO of Operation Unite, told Spears that heroin?s spread throughout Kentucky was inevitable. ?We knew it was coming. We just didn?t know when it would hit,? he said.
Rowan County was hit before most Eastern Kentucky counties, said Smoot; the most recent example of increased heroin use occurred July 9, when Operation UNITE agents arrested a known prescription drug trafficker attempting to bring a large quantity of heroin into Beattyville, says the release.
Uncertainty about what heroin users are actually getting makes the drug especially dangerous, says Paul Hays, law-enforcement director for Operation UNITE. ?You don?t know the purity of the heroin,? he said in the release. ?Dealers will often ?cut? the drug with other substances in order to boost their profits. There?s no way the public knows what they?re shooting up.?
This increased risk can be deadly, and although there's no evidence of an increase in heroin overdose deaths in Eastern Kentucky, a task force has been created to address this fatal problem in Lexington. There have been 29 heroin overdose deaths in Fayette County so far this year, seven more than the amount of overdose deaths in all opf 2012, Fayette Coroner Gary Ginn told the newspaper.
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/07/22/2726235/heroin-problem-surfaces-in-southern.html#storylink=cpy
While an 80-milligram OxyContin costs between $60 to $100 a pill on the black market, heroin costs $45 to $60 for a multiple-dose supply, reports The Partnership at Drugfree.org. With national and state efforts to curb prescription drug abuse, including the reformulation of OxyContin that makes the drug more difficult to crush and snort, heroin can also be easier to obtain and abuse.
As drug users turn from prescription drugs to heroin to get their high, Northern Kentucky and major cities like Lexington and Louisville are struggling to address the problem, says an Operation UNITE press release. Operation UNITE is a regional anti-drug coalition fighting substance abuse in Southern and Eastern Kentucky counties (map).Most Southern and Eastern Kentucky counties are just beginning to see the signs of heroin use, says the release. Dan Smoot, CEO of Operation Unite, told Spears that heroin?s spread throughout Kentucky was inevitable. ?We knew it was coming. We just didn?t know when it would hit,? he said.
Rowan County was hit before most Eastern Kentucky counties, said Smoot; the most recent example of increased heroin use occurred July 9, when Operation UNITE agents arrested a known prescription drug trafficker attempting to bring a large quantity of heroin into Beattyville, says the release.
Uncertainty about what heroin users are actually getting makes the drug especially dangerous, says Paul Hays, law-enforcement director for Operation UNITE. ?You don?t know the purity of the heroin,? he said in the release. ?Dealers will often ?cut? the drug with other substances in order to boost their profits. There?s no way the public knows what they?re shooting up.?
This increased risk can be deadly, and although there's no evidence of an increase in heroin overdose deaths in Eastern Kentucky, a task force has been created to address this fatal problem in Lexington. There have been 29 heroin overdose deaths in Fayette County so far this year, seven more than the amount of overdose deaths in all opf 2012, Fayette Coroner Gary Ginn told the newspaper.
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/07/22/2726235/heroin-problem-surfaces-in-southern.html#storylink=cpy
- Cdc Report Finds Heroin Use Increased By 63 Percent Since 2002, With Greatest Increases Seen Among Women And Whites
Heroin use increased 63 percent and heroin-related overdose deaths nearly quadrupled since 2002, according to a report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As heroin use has increased, so have heroin-related overdose deaths....
- Poll Indicates Northern Kentucky Is Having A Heroin Epidemic
A poll indicates that Northern Kentucky is the hotbed for heroin use in the state, which has increased since the state legislature cracked down on abuse of prescription painkillers. The Kentucky Health Issues Poll, conducted Oct. 25 through Nov. 26, found...
- As Heroin Use Increases In Kentucky, New Report Shows Its Strong Connections To Abusers Of Prescription Pain Medicines
Kentucky's law-enforcement agences, policymakers and public-health advocates have taken serious measures to curb the state's rampant prescription drug abuse problem, and recent state and national news stories suggest that the reduced supply of...
- Cheaper Heroin Showing Up In Eastern Kentucky As Crackdown On Pain Pills Makes That Trade Less Attractive
About 60 grams of heroin, worth about $8,000. (AP photo)It was only few months ago that Northern Kentucky law enforcement officers and substance abuse clinics began expressing grave concern that heroin was fast becoming the go-to drug in their region....
- N. Ky. Chamber To Ask State For More Funding To Fight Heroin; London Police Make First Known Heroin Trafficking Arrests There
The Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce is planning to lobby the state for more funding for heroin treatment after receiving reports from business and law enforcement about the breadth and depth of the drug problem in the region. Terry DeMio of...