SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — What started out as a typical meeting of the South Charleston City Council turned into a discussion about the heroin problem in the city and region.
During the reporting portion of the meeting Thursday, Ward 5 Councilman Edd Brooks asked South Charleston Deputy Police Chief Joel Gray about his ward's recent problems with drug use.
According to Brooks, there has been six overdose over the past month in his district, which runs from D Street to Interstate 64 on the northern side of the interstate.
"It's a heroin epidemic and it's starting to effect the neighbors," he said. "The neighbors are scared."
Gray said heroin is a problem because of how cheap and available it is for people.
"A lot of the users I know know
Previously, drug overdose deaths within the county were treated as "unattended or accidental deaths." D.A. Baker says "those deaths aren't accidents, somebody sold those drugs to that person. Somehow those drugs, whether we are dealing with heroin or synthetics, they got to that person. There was a crime that made that happen and that's what we're going to look at now."
In August of 2016, twenty-six people lives changed, and may never be fixed. In only one week these twenty-six people overdosed on heroin, which three of them died (Police). This is the unseen epidemic because of how unaware people are. People are blind to the prevalence in our community, rising rate of deaths, and seizures, lastly that Narcan will become counterproductive. This unseen epidemic is growing faster than anyone knows, and has to be addressed head on.
rate and cities are struggling to find solutions. The CDC reports that 27,000 people die each year due to heroin overdoses. The jails are filled with offenders, that once released go out and use again, continuing a cycle of insanity without producing answers. Youths experiment with drugs, which is nothing new, but the availability of heroin, meth and the lack of education has contributed greatly to this epidemic. No one seemed to be paying any attention until it reached epidemic proportions, or as some have suggested, became "a white middle class problem" that surpassed the poor minority population.
“...from that moment on I didn't take heroin because I wanted to, I took it because I needed to.” Heroin is a highly addictive, illegal drug that comes from the opium plant. In just the year 2014, 12,000 people in the United States died from heroin overdoses. The York County community has made a big effort to help fight the heroin epidemic, but despite these efforts the county is clearly still struggling with over 60 overdose deaths last year. Some of the efforts York County is making include the use of NARCAN, drug drop boxes, the Good Samaritan law and treatment courts.
Heroin is a drug most children grow up learning about as being one of the worst things you can do. Being young, a child could never imagine doing something to them that is harmful. Yet here we are, at home, right in Northeast Ohio with the biggest heroin epidemic in history. Heroin is essentially a pain blocker. It turns into morphine when it enters the brain. Is this why it is so popular, or is it because this drug is becoming cheaper and cheaper? The answer is both. Heroin offers users a cheap, quick fix to temporarily numb themselves. With its growing popularity, this drug needs to be stopped. The Heroin and Opioid Epidemic Northeast Ohio Community Action Plan is currently a working draft that will
West Virginia the highest rate for an overdose in this particular state. The heroin is an inexpensive drug to buy, drug dealer can make their money this way. This particular drug Heroin gives you an internal rush it keeps you going for a couple hours. Levi says these rates are high because they started at a young age. Also Levi said “is too keep the kids interested in a sport of some kind of activities is so they don’t get hooked on this particular drug”. (McCormick, 2015) Heroin has taken a heavy toll in parts of West Virginia. Prosecutor attorney William Fell said Baltimore is the first heroin addiction and then Berkeley is the second highest heroin issues. Officer Master said the drug dealer is willing to drive to a larger city to get the heroin cheaper like the Pittsburgh District of Columbia or even Baltimore. (McCormick, 2015). This website called West Virginia Broadcasting said ‘The drug dealers will go to Berkley to get new customers or to get more people interested in this drug. Also the West Virginia Broadcasting mention Heroin Mass is up with person breathing system”. (Vorhees, 2015). West Virginia Broadcasting, Dr. Harman said When a person goes into an overdose, when they are brought to the hospital, they are given Narcan to bring them back to a normal breathing relaxing stage. (Vorhees, 2015). The doctor Harman said “will allow family members and friends of addicts to get a prescription for Naloxone” (Vorhees, 2015). Fire department Chad Jones said (Mistich,
The city of Plano, Texas, recently earned a spot at the top of Forbes‘s list of “safest places” to live in the United States. Its early efforts at chasing the top prize, however, were part of a cocktail of ignorance and poor judgment that had deadly consequences for Plano’s teenagers. Plano only earned its long-sought distinction after overcoming the fallout from highly publicized episodes of teen drug overdose and suicide in the 1980s and 90s. During the 1990s, scientists at the National Institute of Health detected a nationwide rise in heroin use (Biederman). The spike was seen not only in large, urban environments, where it was perhaps not unprecedented, but also in small towns and more affluent suburbs. Plano, an affluent, newer suburb twenty miles north of Dallas, was not immune. It witnessed heroin’s devastating impact firsthand in Plano’s children, particularly those in high school. Between 1996 and 1998, heroin overdoses were the cause of 18 deaths in Plano’s young residents. But because Plano was one of the richest cities in Texas and was still recovering from the cultural backlash of cluster suicides in the 1980s, its civic and business leaders and to some extent the police tried to obfuscate the city’s heroin problem rather than confront it directly. It paid a high price for these tactics, and it took Plano decades to rebound from the fallout.
In a small town, everyone is affected by the heroin epidemic. Close-knit families and communities are torn apart by the heroin. The drug affects individuals across every
I see it all the time, on the news, in the newspapers and on the streets of Providence. Talk of the heroin epidemic always seems to be in my face. Often, I see the people plagued by this epidemic. I see them pacing and puffing on cigarettes waiting outside of the clinic just a couple minutes down the street from me. I see them panhandling at intersections with their cardboard signs. I sometimes see discarded needles in the streets downtown. Sometimes I catch myself trying to pretend that I do not see these things or these people. It’s not something people want to think about, it is very unpleasant. These people almost seem to be forgotten by society. They are the heroin addicts of New England.
Who would expect that a town known for their excellent education systems, well developed economy, and rapid population expansion to have the highest record of heroin deaths in one year in the United States? Naperville, Illinois, is a suburb of Chicago, has been dealing with the loss of seven young adults from overdoses of heroin in 2011 (Wilson). The early deaths of these young people are completely avoidable. Having proper knowledge of the warning signs that heroin displays can help; but to further the knowledge, having videos available to watch helps parents talk to their kids about drug use. Better communication can always help any problem, which is another tactic that the city of Naperville is planning to do.
Clinics providing access to readily available prescribed heroin will equal to less criminality acts showing that the individual has no need to commit further drug related crimes. Rather than their days being preoccupied with obtaining the drug, they are provided directly with it so they can work on the other issues that got them into a destructive lifestyle that not only hurt themselves but their relationships with family and friends as well. Furthermore, it seems likely that the improved contact with family, friends, and healthcare providers that comes with heroin prescription improves the chances of a healthy productive lifestyle for the individual. In addition, it provides them with the time to seek counseling, secure housing, and ability to find
The usage of heroin in the Oswego area is visible to law enforcement, but not noticed as much by ordinary residents. Due to the unseen interactions between buyers and sellers, it is easy to believe drug use is non-existent in a community such as Oswego. The truth of the matter is, this is not true. In retrospect, many of the residents use drugs in part because the neighborhood they reside in is expected to be free of such activity. The people who recognized drug use was a problem became advocates to stop the issue. For instance, there is Tim and Shannon Ryan, who are the parents of a son who overdosed from heroin. Tim Ryan, introduced his son Ryan to the world of heroin, would spend $400-$500 a day on his addiction, causing his family to lose their Oswego home and forcing his wife to file for divorce. Hoping to save her family, Shannon Ryan videotapes her husband and son while under the influence believing if they viewed the tape while sober it would cause them to quit the drug. Unfortunately, this was not what happened. The Ryan’s lost their son Nick to heroin usage. Consequently, Tim and his now ex-wife publicly speak out against heroin usage. Tim who is now clean runs a non-profit organization called A Man in Recovery.
Over the last three decades several United States auto jobs have migrated to the South. Some of the things that have attracted these auto giants to these Southern States is the cost of living and operating advantages which far surpass those of their Northern counterparts, which also attract more white-collar workers. The Volvo plant is no different, their goal for building in South Carolina is an attempt to re-focus it US market share, which had long diminished. Although having these auto giants, such as Volvo come in to these small rural towns to encourage growth and development, what effect does it really have in the community?
Some residents of New Hanover County find that statistic new and shocking. However, many others have dealt with the issue for a significant amount of time. As you leave the tourist areas of New Hanover County, you find public housing projects, trailer parks, and parks littered with discarded hypodermic needles. To people who live in these places, the opioid crisis already made an impact on everyday life and no longer captures people’s attention. For example, Joe Stanley, a former addict interviewed by NC Policy Watch said that people in Wilmington had been dealing with a drug problem for years. However, it has become big news “because you’re seeing that other demographic
Heroin is making a comeback in the United States and is highly prevalent in certain areas. The heroin epidemic is sweeping across the Midwest, and claiming the lives of young white males. It is very different from the 1960’s use of heroin, and is now typically used because of its low cost and previous opioid addictions to other prescription drugs. Young white males in many different communities are becoming hooked because of the careless use of pain pills prescribed or taking them from parents’ medicine cabinets. The communities include rural towns, big cities, and suburbs all across the country.