Tag: addiction

Drug overdoses now leading cause of death in US

American lawmakers are grappling with ways to respond to a worsening heroin epidemic. Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death in the US, surpassing car accidents and gunshot wounds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lawmakers attending a House of Representatives judicial committee hearing on Tuesday learned that the number of people overdosing on opioids has quadrupled in the past decade, with many deaths occurring in the upper class, particularly among women and in suburban areas.

“There were over 43,000 deaths in 2013, or approximately 120 per day, over half of which involved either a prescription painkiller or heroin. These are our family members, friends, neighbors, and colleagues,” Jack Riley, acting deputy administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency, told the committee.

Drug deaths now outnumber deaths from gunshot wounds (over 33,600) and motor vehicle crashes (over 32,700) in the United States, according to the CDC.

Riley said there are more than 600,000 heroin users in the US today, and agency officials say the figure is likely to be undercounted, as it is based on a household survey and wouldn’t account for all heroin users among homeless populations.

The sheer volume of heroin that is coming into the country and the number of people turning to it has been driving the levels of drug abuse up, according to analysts. Between 2008 and 2012, the DEA saw a 232 percent increase in drug busts along the Mexican border. Last year alone, agents seized 281 kilograms of heroin.

The biggest gateway to heroin is an addiction to prescription drugs. Increases in overdoses seen among women and the wealthy may be accounted for by previous addiction to prescribed pills, according to the CDC. When pills become too expensive or difficult to obtain, people may have turn to a cheaper alternative – heroin at $10 a bag.

What is also unique about the opioid epidemic is that it is no longer just a border or urban problem, but a suburban problem as well. Local law enforcement has largely been left to handle the epidemic on their own, but they are increasingly looking for answers from the federal level. The DEA and other experts see a connection between drug cartels and small street gangs in local towns like Chesapeake, Virginia.

One in 5 people in SA use drugs

The face of drug addiction in South Africa has changed, with organisations estimating that about one in five people use drugs on a regular basis.

The advent of newer drugs, mostly consisting of a mixture of existing substances and additives available on the market, has fed the need for the “high” that temporarily allows users to disassociate with reality.

“Easy access to high quality and relatively cheap drugs, coupled with high levels of unemployment, trauma, violence and the deterioration of social support by family members, friends and the community, has led to the steady increase in the incidence of drug abuse and addiction in South Africa,” said Nathan Rogerson, of Akeso Clinics.

The sad state of affairs would take its toll on all affected by the scourge, and also impact negatively on productivity, he added.

Cheap drugs like nyaope have become the street drug of choice in Pretoria. As such the city has been identified as the capital of nyaope production and use.

It has also been described as “crack with a sickening twist”, and dealers and users have been known to mix a combination of heroin, detergents, ARVs and, in some quarters, battery fluid and/or rat poison.

It has become part of everyday culture in the city’s townships and has been identified as “a drug of poverty”.