America's Growing Heroin Epidemic

Philip Seymour Hoffman Dies Amid Major Comeback Of Heroin In The U.S. -- L.A. Times

NEW YORK -- Sometimes the traffickers inject liquid heroin into jeans so they can ship the drug where it needs to go. Sometimes it's a fake coconut or bananas.

In a few cases, according to federal officials, heroin is injected into the bellies of dogs.

However it arrives, hundreds of thousands Americans have been turning to heroin more and more in recent years, and officials across the country are sounding the alarm as fatal heroin overdoses have more than doubled in some states over the last decade.

Although the autopsy results for Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman are not yet known, packets of the drug were found Sunday in his New York apartment where he died, a needle sticking in his arm.

Read more ....

More News On America's Growing Heroin Epidemic

Before Philip Seymour Hoffman's Death, Feds Saw 'Soaring' Heroin Addiction, Deaths -- ABC News
Heroin: America’s Silent Assassin -- Daily Beast
Ready access, low cost, pill-like high: Heroin's rise and fatal draw -- CNN
Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Deadly ‘Ace of Spades' Heroin -- Marlow Stern, Daily Beast
Why Heroin Is So Deadly -- Bahar Gholipour, Huffington Post
What’s in “Bad Heroin”? -- Brian Palmer, Slate

Heroin Addicts Around The World Are Affected By Afghanistan's Poppy Crop Failure This Year

Killing fields: Farmers in Afghanistan gather an opium crop which will be made into heroin. Photo from The Daily Mail

Heroin Shortage In UK Is 'Putting Lives At Risk' -- The Guardian

• Afghan poppy harvest blighted by fungus
• Dealers adulterating supply to maintain profits

Hospitals are treating a growing number of drug users who have overdosed on heroin mixed with other substances by dealers because of a huge shortage of the opiate across the UK.

One of the most severe heroin 'droughts' for five years has been reported in areas across the UK, including, London, Lancashire, Surrey, and Stockton-on-Tees.

The shortage has been linked not to seizures of the drug by law enforcement agencies but to a fungus that has blighted this year's poppy crop in Afghanistan, reducing it by half.

Read more ....

My Comment: Britain is not the only country affected by this shortage. Russia has one of the worst addiction rates for heroin in the world, and I have noticed in the Russian news media numerous stories (recently) that outline how reports of heroin and opium shortages in Russia are now creating a catastrophic situation for its addicts.

Why We Are Going To Be In Afghanistan For A Long Time

From Kings Of War:

An excellent illustration of how providing alternative livelihoods for Afghan poppy-growing farmers is stymied not just by the Taliban, but by government corruption and weak institutions: a group of foreign and local businessmen – including noted Afghan expert Barnett Rubin – have been frustrated in their efforts to launch a small-scale perfume industry in eastern Afghanistan.

Read more ....

My Comment: The culture of Afghanistan is so back in the middle ages, but with heroin and modern weaponry being the currencies of choice. To successfully change this culture in the next generation or two .... I must admit that I am skeptical.