VistaTaos

Heroin in New Mexico is selling at 1977 prices, says The Partnership at Drugfree.org in a 2012 study. If you’re looking for your fix you can still find it for about ten bucks, basically unchanged from the price of product sold thirty years ago. Unfortunately, the drug is more pure than it was back then, which means it’s more deadly.

In an interesting side note, the cost of funerals has dramatically increased from less than $6,000 ten years ago to about $10,000, excluding headstone. That means even if it costs you less in 2013 dollars for your heroin high than it did thirty years ago, dying from an overdose will cause your family to pay more for your final send-off.

The Partnership cites a story in MSNBC for its details on the increase in heroin abuse. People who began using painkillers to get high in their teens find that those prescription pills such as Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet and other narcotic painkillers are no longer so easily available, or they may have become costs prohibitive. The increased availability of heroin in New Mexico is due to fact that it comes right over the border from Mexico into the States.

A long-time medical office manager talks about how patients come for treatment of trauma injuries and easily get hooked on prescription painkillers. Not that long ago, she says, a patient initially treated after an automobile accident or injury would go from doctor to doctor complaining about his pain. His family physician and then an orthopedic doctor might both write prescriptions, and next he could go to a dentist to get yet another prescription for a supposed toothache. This ‘doctor shopping’ afforded easy an easy way to maintain a habit.

Even when they sought multiple prescriptions from the same doctor, the patients could be very creative in their requests. She recalls one patient whose outlandish excuses included losing his prescription because it was in the pocket of his jeans laundered by his mother. Another time the same patient reported that he had dropped his prescription down an elevator shaft when a Salvation Army bell ringer scared him. There was very little tracking of pain medication prescriptions through the 1990’s.

That changed in the last decade or so, with computer databases making it possible for physicians and pharmacists to communicate more effectively about how many prescriptions for pain medication a patient had presented with.  There is also more random as well as routine federal monitoring of prescriptions issued for painkillers.

Heroin abuse is not limited to New Mexico neighborhoods. It’s happening in urban centers like Dallas, Oklahoma City, Chicago, and other cities and towns where emergency department visits for heroin overdose rose 288 percent over a decade’s time. It’s happening in rural and small town centers across America.

Today’s drug abusers are getting dependent on painkillers and then becoming desperate when their sources dry up. It becomes easy to make the leap from paying upwards of twenty dollars for an OxyContin bought on the street to about half that cost for heroin.

According to Join Together, a doctor in Columbus, Ohio, tells of an upscale young woman typical of the heroin patients he sees. “Oh, I just went to a party and it was there, and I loved it,” this woman said to the doctor.  In New Mexico, 86 percent of patients overdosing on heroin are age 25 or older.

Treatment for heroin addiction requires combined therapies, including behavioral modification and supervised withdrawal.  It’s also an addiction that requires completely separating an addict from access to his drug of choice, via an inpatient hospital stay or a residential substance abuse treatment center. If you know someone who needs to stop using heroin, call Vista Taos Renewal Center at 1.800.245.8267.

Neighbors phoned the police about a parking dispute with residents of an Albuquerque 55th Avenue home. What they found next surprised them.

Ten adults were living in the home without heat, running water, or natural gas. The squatters had hacked in to the electrical box with a hacksaw to steal electricity, but without other services available, the house quickly dropped to deplorable conditions. Everyone in the home was under the influence of one drug or another.

According to Albuquerque Police Officer Joe Martinez, “(There was) no water to even flush a toilet or wash your hands with -- and you've got 10 adult people (at the residence)."

To add insult to injury, the squatters were heavy heroin users. When police entered the house, they discovered the home was overrun with used needles and with needles still loaded with black tar heroin. The conditions were so terrible that investigators had a difficult time investigating the crime scene; the dangerous needles, many uncapped, impeded their progress.

Three squatters were arrested on outstanding warrants when the police arrived, and the owner of the home has been contacted to perform a clean-up of his property.

Unfortunately, the heroin addiction that led these ten squatters to live in such deplorable conditions is all too common. Heroin addiction can be extremely difficult to break, but it is possible. With the help of drug treatment centers like Vista Taos in New Mexico, addicts can break free of their heroin addiction. Hopefully, with the help of a treatment center, the ten individuals found squatting at this residence can receive the necessary assistance to transcend heroin addiction.

When using needles to inject drugs, the user runs so many risks, not just the possibility of overdosing on the heroin. There is a chance that injection sites can become infected; this can be so bad that it results in amputation of the limb. Dirty needles and needle sharing is also how many users end up with auto-immune diseases like HIV/AIDs and Hepatitis C.

Heroin is a deadly drug, quite possibly the most dangerous drug being used at this moment. Please seek help immediately if you or a loved one needs assistance with heroin treatment. Inpatient treatment can save your life. Contact Vista Taos to learn more about the detox and treatment options for heroin.

People these days are beginning to become addicted to hard drugs like heroin through legal substances like pain pills. With about ten percent of young adults reporting they have taken prescription medications without a prescription, DEA agents are beginning to crack down on the doctor’s offices that may prescribe medications too easily. 

In a sting operation earlier this year, DEA agents investigated many doctor’s offices that had been reported as easy prescribers. They found that some patients jump from one easy-prescribing office to another in search of narcotic drugs. The drugs were then available for young adults to purchase on the black market or pilfer from adults’ medicine cabinets.

Once these young people became addicted to legal narcotic drugs, they often found that drugs like oxycodone and Vicodin were too expensive on the black market. So many young adults sought cheaper illegal drugs that could offer the same kind of high, like heroin. In essence, legal narcotic pain pills have become the new gateway drug to heroin abuse.

Since possession of legal narcotic drugs is not illegal, it has been a little more difficult for the DEA to investigate the trend. Agents must dig deeper to determine whether a young adult in possession of a narcotic drug is a legitimate act of pain prevention or an illegal act of drug addiction.

Since drug overdose is the number one cause of accidental death in New Mexico, many rehabilitation centers like the New Mexico’s own Vista Taos Renewal Center have been focusing on helping people overcome heroin abuse and other addictions. If you or a loved one suffers from heroin abuse, you may wish to contact a rehabilitation center immediately; kicking heroin abuse can help many people live more meaningful lives. Don’t wait until it’s too late; jail is no place to detox from heroin. The detoxification process from drugs like heroin (and prescription drugs) can be very painful and even dangerous. Symptoms of withdrawal should be monitored by a medical professional during the detox phase. Steps can be taken; you can comfortably detox from heroin. Let Vista Taos help you safely get away heroin before it takes your life.

Actress Felicia Pearson of the show The Wire, plans to plead guilty for her involvement in a drug conspiracy case involving the sale of heroin. Ironically, in the HBO show, Felicia plays a character that is a Baltimore drug gang assassin. In reality, she was part of a Baltimore drug gang herself. She was one of 64 individuals who were charged back in March with being part of a conspiracy where they bought heroin from New York and marijuana from California and then sold the drugs on the streets of Baltimore.

Indictments claim that the members involved in the gang were dealt with in violent ways if they did not perform tasks they were given. For her part, Alicia only faces a misdemeanor charge, but what she needs more than anything is help with heroin rehab. Apparently, Alicia claims she grew up in an environment where she was hanging out with the wrong type of people and those people forced her to stay involved in this apparent heroin and marijuana drug ring.

For Alicia, this is not her first run-in with law enforcement. She has previously been arrested in 2008 on minor drug charges but was later found not guilty. Ultimately, Alicia decided to cooperate with police on the drug investigation was a cry for help and the best thing for her would be heroin rehab so she does not fall back into the same circle of people who influenced her in a negative way. Heroin is an ugly addiction that is very difficult to kick and not something to play around with.

Hopefully, Alicia will realize that rehabilitation can start her on the right track to a brighter future and get her away from the bad influences that have brought her down in the past. If you are suffering from an addiction to heroin or any of other type of substance, contact Vista Taos Renewal Center today and find out how you can change your life for the better. Vista Taos is located 85 miles north of Santa Fe in the small township of Taos. It stands to be a peaceful and expert source of finding sobriety.

One of the most highly addictive drugs being used in the United States at this time is Heroin. Stories told by past users usually always start out with explaining their instant addiction after only trying it one time. Heroin addiction is so extreme that a pharmaceutical medication, Suboxone, was created to help heroin addiction users wean themselves off of heroin dependence and lead a drug-free life.

But the drug created to help users kick their heroin addiction is now being used as another source of getting high. Suboxone is being sold on the streets for anywhere from $15 to $25 a pill. The scariest part is those getting caught with the drugs are only getting a slap on the wrist since it is only misdemeanor crime at this point. Heroin addicts are now able to shift from shooting up to popping a pill to get high and they are misusing a prescription meant to help them quit using heroin. However, this pill can be broken down and injected to elevate the effects.

This medication was originally intended to block the effects of opiates while reducing opiate cravings and easing withdrawal symptoms. Unfortunately, it is now being abused much like the US has seen in previous years with the drug, Methadone. The abuse of this drug is popping up all over the United States and most recently in large numbers in Houston, Texas.

If you are taking Suboxone, it is very important to follow all directions given by your doctor to help curb your addiction instead of increasing it, and to make sure you are not causing internal damage to your body through misuse. If you or someone you know is in need of a heroin addiction rehab centeror an addicted to Suboxone, contact Vista Taos Renewal Center today and get the help you need to lead a healthy drug-free life. Vista Taos is located relatively close to Texas, meaning that expert help is just a short trip away.