A tough new law designed to crack down on prescription drug abuse in Florida went into effect in September 2011. Florida’s problem with easily obtained drugs from “pill mills” is so pervasive that it is spilling over into adjoining states, and various senators and governors from these regions have urged Florida Gov. Rick Scott to implement the anti-drug legislation.
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Many experts say that prescription medications are similar to heroin and that addicts will switch drugs to the first available to seek relief from pain. The abuse of prescription drugs has become the greatest drug epidemic since crack cocaine entered the scene in the 80s and 90s.
Heroin is a drug that is still causing problems for millions of people. In Prague, a new prescription drug that is supposed to help heroin addicts kick the habit is actually providing them with a high similar to that of heroin itself.
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What happens when you hear words like “drug use” and “drug addiction” in news stories night after night for years on end? As with anything else, endless repetition of certain phrases tends to cause the mind to blur or gloss over what’s really being said or the intent of the message to begin with. Case in point is the touted War on Drugs, a worthy initiative that somehow never really accomplished what could be classified as a victory. And drugs on the street today are deadlier than ever, boasting concentrations that are higher than ever before. From various forms of heroin to marijuana to methamphetamine and other drugs, the pure and deadly drugs are all over our streets.
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Over the past five years the number of drug users in Afghanistan has increased from 920,000 to over 1.5 million, the spokesman of the Ministry of Counter-Narcotics (MCN), Zalmai Afzali, told IRIN.
A team of researchers hired by the US State Department has found staggering levels of opium and heroin in Afghan children as young as 14 months. "I think we’ve opened a can of worms," said Bruce Goldberger, one of the University of Florida scientists heading up the study, who spoke exclusively with Brian Ross for a report airing on World News with Diane Sawyer and Nightline tonight.
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More than 90 percent of the world’s 16 million injecting drug users are offered no help to avoid contracting AIDS, and governments that ignore them risk a spiraling public health crisis, drugs experts said on Monday.
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The UN Office on Drugs and Crime reported last week that Russia is the world’s biggest target market for heroin distribution and consumes one-fifth of all heroin produced globally. Now, every third person killed by heroin is Russian.
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It has long been known that Afghanistan is the world’s leading narcotics supplier—in fact, the country is responsible for 95 percent of the world’s heroin—but the country also hides an enormous drug addiction problem that is on the brink of fueling an HIV/AIDS epidemic.
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Dan Piirainen told Nevada’s News 4 that he watched some of his lifelong friends’ lives turn upside-down as they experimented with heroin. A group of his friends started using the dangerous drug at young ages, some as young as 17.