Heroin Laced With Fentanyl And Other Dangerous Results Of Prohibition – Understanding Opiates and Opioid addiction and the treatment in Vancouver, British Columbia by Options Okanagan Treatment Center in Kelowna, British Columbia treating Opiate addiction and recovery
Do you have any recollection of the guy who purchased 80-proof vodka and it was actually 190-proof Everclear? He ended up dying from alcohol poisoning. You have probably never heard about this since it is not something that happens in the legal drug market, where anyone who made this type of switch, whether purposefully or accidentally, would be in serious economic and legal hot water. In contrast, things are quite different in the black market. There are numerous cases of people getting something far different from what they believed they were buying. It is often stronger, weaker or an entirely different substance. One of the leading newspapers published a story recently about heroin that was laced with fentanyl, which can have deadly results.
This type of thing is so common that calling it an unfortunate consequence of prohibition is a mistake. Those who write drug policy are clearly not aware of the history behind it. It is also probably a mistake to say that the unknown contents of black market drugs is due to prohibition as well since that goes against prohibitionists’ goal of discouraging drug use. After all, the more unpredictable the effects of drugs are, the less likely it is that people will want to use them. This means that the lives of undeterred drug users are affected because there are people who commonly make bad decisions that put themselves at risk. After all, this is indeed the point of prohibition.
For those who harbor doubts about the fact that prohibition has led to more dangerous drugs, here is an example that was highlighted in a popular publication.
Fentanyl, which is a synthetic painkiller, is around 40 times stronger than heroin in its purest form. As a result, dealers sometimes add fentanyl from black market labs to the product they peddle. This is probably due to the fact that heroin is diluted at some point between when it is produced and when it is sold, and the fentanyl gives it an extra kick. Last year in March a leading newspaper reported about the DEA issuing a health alert on fentanyl. It was reported that there were over 3,000 fentanyl samples found in local and state drug labs in 2014, which is large rise from the 942 that were found in 2013. In two major cities, there were three fatal overdoses that were caused by fentanyl. This is in addition to the countless heroin users that had to be treated in local hospitals. The newspaper also reported that deaths related to fentanyl started in 2005 and killed over 1,000 people in around two years.
While these deaths are generally called “drug-related,” it is more appropriate to call them the result of prohibition. The soaring prices and profits that are created by prohibition give drug dealers great reasons to dilute their products. Since there is very little legal accountability on the black market, they are given free reign to do that. If they dilute it to the point that customers begin to complain, adding fentanyl is an easy, inexpensive solution, even if it does have to lead to death on occasion. Variations in the purity of heroin can also lead to dire circumstances. There was an anti-drug commercial created by the government years ago and it quoted a mother whose child died of a heroin overdose. She mentioned the fact the heroin in some cities is so pure. One reason that people are dying from using this drug is because they are not aware of the purity.
Prohibition is the cause of drugs being available that have unknown potency. So basically, it has actually made the problem worse instead of making it better. Those who are fighting the war on drugs think of lower potency as a good thing, but that is not actually the case. When a heroin user is required to take more in order to achieve the same effect, there is always a chance that they will run into a batch that is far more potent than expected. Successful drug enforcement means that drug dealers will continue to add things like fentanyl to their product. These unadvertised ingredients are increasing the dangers for those who use.
Options Okanagan Drug And Fentanyl Treatment Centers in Kelowna, Salmon Arm and Vancouver, British Columbia – Men and Women are recovering and healing from Alcohol and Drug Abuse at our treatment center here in the Okanagan right now.
Our unique and distinctive drug treatment program allows men and women to come in from Calgary as well as Edmonton as we offer airport pickup.
Numerous clients come to us from Calgary and Edmonton and other locations in Alberta and even other provinces for Opiate addiction treatment, meth drug treatment, many other drug and alcohol addictions for rehabilitation because of the uniqueness of our treatment center.
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