Analysis of Heroin use, effects and trends

Fort Myers Police Department

What is Heroin Heroin is a highly addictive drug and the most rapidly acting of the opiates.

What is its origin? Heroin is processed from morphine, a naturally occurring substance extracted from the seed pod of certain varieties of poppy plants grown in: Southeast Asia (Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar (Burma), Southwest Asia (Afghanistan and Pakistan), Mexico, and Colombia

It comes in several forms, the main one being “black tar” from Mexico (found primarily in the western United States) and white heroin from Colombia (primarily sold on the East Coast).

Street Names

What are common street names?

Big H, Black Tar, Chiva, Hell Dust, Horse, Negra, Smack, Boy, H, and Thunder

Heroin

What does it look like? Heroin is typically sold as a white or

brownish powder, or as the black sticky substance known on the streets as “black tar heroin.” Although purer heroin is becoming more common most street heroin is “cut” with other drugs or with substances such as sugar, starch, powdered milk, or quinine.

What does it Look Like

Items used to abuse the drug

Heroin Seized recently in Fort Myers

Heroin

How is it abused? Heroin can be injected, smoked, or

sniffed/snorted. High purity heroin is usually snorted

or smoked.

Effects of Heroin

What is its effect on the mind? Because it enters the brain so

rapidly, heroin is particularly addictive, both psychologically and physically. Heroin abusers report feeling a surge of euphoria or “rush,” followed by a twilight state of sleep and wakefulness.

Effects of Heroin What is its effect on the body?

One of the most significant effects of heroin use is addiction.

With regular heroin use, tolerance to the drug develops.

Once this happens, the abuser must use more heroin to achieve the same intensity. As higher doses of the drug are used over time,

physical dependence and addiction to the drug develop.

Physical symptoms of heroin use include:

Drowsiness, respiratory depression, constricted pupils, nausea, a warm flushing of the skin, dry mouth, and heavy extremities

Effects of Heroin What are its overdose effects?

Because heroin abusers do not know the actual strength of the drug or its true contents, they are at a high risk of overdose

or death. The effects of a heroin overdose are:

Slow and shallow breathing, blue lips and fingernails, clammy skin, convulsions, coma, and possible death.

Similar Drugs

Which drugs cause similar effects? Other opioids such as Oxycontin®,

Vicodin®, codeine, morphine, methadone, and fentanyl can cause similar effects as heroin.

Oxycodone Rx Drug

Legal Aspect

What is its legal status in the United States?

Heroin is a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act meaning that it has a high potential for abuse, no current accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision.

Heroin and Crime

Heroin use has long been associated with crime because its importation and distribution are illegal. Many addicted people turn to theft and prostitution to obtain money to buy the drug

Heroin Facts from South Florida In Miami-Dade County, deaths jumped 120

percent, from 15 in 2011 to 33 in 2012.

The crossover from the prescription products to illicit heroin complicates that and will fuel the continued epidemic.

Medical experts say that the latest spike in heroin use and deaths is among young adults, ages 18 to 29, who are using it in place of prescription pain pills.

Heroin Related Deaths

Heroin Facts

Until recently, Florida was the nation's capital for the illegal prescription pain medication trade. The state once had 90 of the top 100 oxycodone-purchasing physicians in the nation and 53 of the top 100 pharmacies supplying the pills.

Heroin Facts

Tougher regulations that went into place in 2012 have made access to “legal “ doctors more difficult. The “Pill Mills” have dwindled and a majority moved out of state.

As a result, users are moving back to heroin

Heroin FactsSW Florida mirrors trends from South Florida. There are no statistics available for SW Florida at this time

Many of those pills made their way up the East Coast, sold at high markups in rural communities stretching from northern Alabama to western Pennsylvania. Interstate 95 was dubbed Oxy Alley or Oxy Express for the dealers who regularly drove hundreds of miles to South Florida to buy cheap pain pills.

Drug FactsSW Florida mirrors trends from South Florida. There are no statistics available for SW Florida at this time

Heroin Treatment South Florida

Heroin Facts

Fort Myers Police Department Seizures

Year Total Seized Street Value Increase Year to Year

2012 50.2 grams $5,378.00 _____

2013 152.4 grams $16,328.00 203%

2014 (1st Quarter only) 402.2 grams $43,092.00 164%

Enforcement The Special Investigations Group continues to

make undercover drug purchases.

The results of these purchases is drug dealers arrested as well as search warrants for residence being used for distribution locations( in fact, in the first quarter of 2014 of the 402 grams seized, 175.6 grams came from residences during search warrants)

Detectives have seen an increase over the last two years of the amount of heroin purchased on the streets

Enforcement

It still does not rise to the level of cocaine seen and purchased

The sharp increase is in correlation with the drop off of prescription pills being sold on the street. The majority of the prescription drugs were opiate based, Oxycontin for example.

Enforcement

When stricter measures were placed on the pain clinics, the street user had more difficulty getting drugs from a licensed doctor.

The result was falling back to heroin

Enforcement Because of the increase in heroin use, The Drug

Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Department of Justice have started an initiative to combat the escalating heroin use. Additional funding has become available to assist with the enforcement and investigation into the importation, distribution and sale of this dangerous drug.

The local office of DEA is participating in this initiative and will be working with local agencies to confront this dangerous issue.

This is a nationwide issue and not solely a Southwest Florida problem.