|
Harm
Enhancement:
Adulterated
Batches
of
Heroin
Killing
Users
in
Chicago,
on
East
Coast
4/28/06
https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/433/badbatches.shtml
One of the perils of prohibition
is playing out among heroin users in Chicago and on the East Coast, especially
around Philadelphia, and it is the users who are paying the price.
At least a dozen Chicago-area heroin users have died of overdoses in the
past few weeks, while in the Delaware-New Jersey-Pennsylvania area, at
least 11 more have died in the last two weeks, according to local press
reports, while dozens more have suffered non-fatal overdoses in both areas.
The New Jersey State Police
and the Pennsylvania Department of Health both issued warnings about the
wave of overdoses apparently emanating from Camden, New Jersey, across
the Delaware River from Philadelphia. In Chicago and its suburbs,
police and health authorities are also on high alert. They are linking
the wave of overdoses to batches of heroin cut with Fentanyl, a synthetic
narcotic 80 times more powerful than morphine. The drug is usually
prescribed in a skin patch to treat chronic pain in cancer patients, but
is known on the street as "China White."
In a drug control system
where the sale of substances like heroin is prohibited and thus unregulated,
there are no mechanisms to prevent the adulteration of drugs by distributors
too careless or too unscrupulous to protect the health of their clientele.
In a drug control system where substances like heroin are available through
a regulated market, quality-control provisions would prevent such occurrences.
The people who stuck needles full of what they thought was heroin in the
arms and died are victims of their own choices, but they are also victims
of drug prohibition.
-- END --
|
Issue #433
-- 4/28/06
Feature:
A
Perfect
Storm
on
the
US-Mexican
Border
as
Drug
and
Immigration
and
Terror
Wars
Converge
|
Feature:
DPA
"City
Strategy"
Takes
Aim
at
Drug
War
in
the
Nation's
Capital
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Feature:
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Marijuana
Reform
Conference
Wraps
Up
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Offer:
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Feedback:
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Law
Enforcement:
This
Week's
Corrupt
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Stories
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Medical
Marijuana:
Bipartisan
House
Coalition
Challenges
FDA
Medical
Marijuana
Finding
|
Legalization:
Buffalo
Politician
Ignites
Firestorm
by
Using
"L-Word"
|
Harm
Enhancement:
Adulterated
Batches
of
Heroin
Killing
Users
in
Chicago,
on
East
Coast
|
Medical
Marijuana:
Ed
Rosenthal's
Federal
Cultivation
Convictions
Overturned
|
Southeast
Asia:
Malaysia
Bans
Marijuana
Magazines
|
Canada:
Vancouver
Mayor
Wants
Drug
Maintenance
Program
|
Web
Scan:
Slate,
Scientific
American,
The
Economist
and
Rush
Limbaugh
on
Medical
Marijuana
and
the
FDA,
In
These
Times
Book
Reviews
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