The cheapness in the drug is huge. This has been going on where I live for quite a few years now. Everyday some are in the news for heroin and other crimes rates have risen because of the addiction and the need to get more.

I also wonder if giving the drug narcan to family members who are around known heroine users and cops who respond in these areas. That way they would be able to give the opioid antagonist that could help save lives of people who overdose and save their lives.

Obviously drug abuse is a hugely complex issue that I could never summarize in a short comment, but I would be interested in seeing if heroin abuse rates would decrease if doctors in a given area prescribed fewer prescription opiates. I also think more education should be given on usage of opiates when they are prescribed; I was on strong opiates (morphine and dilaudid) for several months and despite being very conservative with my use (for fear of getting a dependence) my tolerance still went up significantly over the period - had the source of my pain not been treated, I could see myself having had far more issues with getting off the drugs.

And through my own process, I had people around me who seemed to think that if a doctor prescribed it, then it was pretty much safe to do whatever in the name of reducing pain. I had a hard time explaining to them that the actual "drug" part of heroin is very, very similar to the drugs I was being prescribed - prescription pills just seem "cleaner", I suppose.

How is so much heroin flowing into the country that the price is driven this far down while demand is up? Don't we have a military presence in these opium producing countries? Oh yeah, I forgot, we're defending their fucking crops for them.