Price adds to growing popularity of heroin

Staggering figures about heroin show it is quickly becoming the drug of choice among some high school students. From Seattle to Salt Lake County, it appears the availability of stronger and cheaper heroin is a driving factor. Police in the Seattle area say a bag of heroin can cost as little as $5.00. In Utah, that would make heroin cheaper than marijuana and spice. Unified police tell KSL marijuana and spice each sell for $10 to $50 for an eighth of an ounce, depending on the quality.

It's being called an epidemic in the Seattle area. KING 5 News reports 42 students between the ages of 15 and 17 in Stanwood, Wash., are reportedly receiving treatment or are being admitted for the treatment of heroin addiction. One addict points out the painkiller OxyContin costs $60 for a pill while heroin costs only $5.00. Another problem with heroin is the potency. Police in Utah have said in recent months they occasionally see heroin that is 80 to 90 percent pure, rather than 30 to 40 percent pure.

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Cheap, deadly 'cheese' mix of heroin, crushed Tylenol PM aimed at kids

Federal officials are warning New York cops to be on the lookout for a cheap - and potentially deadly - heroin cocktail aimed at teens. Cops across Manhattan were recently told to watch out for "cheese," a mix of heroin and crushed Tylenol PM. Cheese sells for as little as $2 a hit and delivers a euphoric high followed by drowsiness. To keep the high, users need to snort it up to 15 times a day - along with a potentially lethal dosage of acetaminophen.

Cheese, which came on the radar in Dallas in 2005, has not been seen much in New York, but heroin use among teens is on the rise in the city - and the Drug Enforcement Agency fears cheese could be the next step. "It's the makings of a recipe for disaster," said John Gilbride, who heads the Drug Enforcement Agency's New York office. Heroin, associated with hardcore junkies and needles, has lost some of its stigma among teens who snort, rather than inject, the drug, Gilbride said. Dealers are stamping packets with kid-friendly brands such as Mickey Mouse, Lady Gaga, Looney Tunes and Lion King, the office of New York Special Narcotics Prosecutor, Bridget Brennan said.

The percentage of public high school students who have tried heroin increased from 1.3% in 2007 to 2.6% in 2009, the city Health Department said. Despite the small numbers, the DEA says it's recently seen more dealers marketing heroin to a younger audience and more teens busted for using it. Cheese has been blamed for the deaths of more than 20 young users in the Dallas area. "It can ruin lives," said an NYPD commander who recently taught patrol officers how to spot cheese. "You have to jump on the problem right away. This drug is so highly addictive."

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Afghani drugs becoming a major Australian problem

AFGHAN heroin has been smuggled into Australia in increasing quantities in recent years, surpassing Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle as the principal source, as the deepening insurgency and a shift in US counter-narcotics policy block efforts to curb Afghanistan's flourishing opium trade. The Australian Crime Commission and Australian Federal Police say Afghanistan is becoming the dominant source of heroin in this country, accounting for as much as two-thirds of the drug imports in recent years. The latest International Narcotics Control Strategy report from the US State Department says that despite a decade of counter-narcotics efforts, Afghanistan remains the world's largest producer of opium poppies, responsible for 90 per cent of the opium gum used to manufacture heroin worldwide, worth $2.8 billion a year. UN figures show opium production has exploded in the decade since US-led forces invaded Afghanistan, with curbing the heroin trade a key objective. In 2001, poppy fields covered 7600ha and produced 185 tonnes of opium, last year they covered 131,000ha and produced 6900 tonnes.

IN May last year, Afghan national army commandos backed by coalition forces made an eye-popping find when they raided an insurgent stronghold in the town of Marjah in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province. Along with a large stash of bomb-making materials, they stumbled on the biggest opium cache located in Afghanistan. There were 18,000kg of raw opium, 200kg of heroin, 1000kg of hashish, 72,000kg of poppy seed and more than 20,000kg of precursor chemicals used to process opium into morphine and heroin. The discovery of the stash was proof of Afghanistan's emergence as not only the world's largest supplier of opium, responsible for more than 90 per cent of global stocks, but as a leading producer of processed heroin, which is flowing into Western markets including Australia. The narcotics factory at Marjah was one of 25 drug laboratories discovered and destroyed in Afghanistan last year. Tonnes of narcotics have been burned, several big traffickers imprisoned and others extradited to face trial in the US.

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Anthrax contaminated heroin spreads in U.K.

British authorities today warned drug users that heroin in London was highly likely to be contaminated with anthrax, after a first confirmed case there and following nine deaths in Scotland. "While public health investigations are ongoing, it must be assumed that all heroin in London carries the risk of anthrax contamination," said Dr. Brian McCloskey, who is director of the Health Protection Agency (HPA) in London.

"Heroin users are advised to cease taking heroin by any route, if at all possible, and to seek help from their local drug treatment services."McCloskey added that the risk to the general population was "negligible."Anthrax has been found in 19 heroin users in Scotland since December and nine of those people died, six of them in the Glasgow area, officials said. The first case in London was confirmed yesterday, and the user was in hospital receiving treatment.

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'Sharp drop' in Afghan opium crop

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime says opium cultivation has fallen by 22% in a year and production by 10%, with the biggest fall in Helmand province. But the figures are still higher than three years ago, when British troops began fighting Taliban militants there.

The UN says the drugs trade, which helps fund the insurgency, threatens the legitimacy of the Afghan state. It has called on the international community to sustain progress in Afghanistan, which produces 90% of the world's heroin.

It said 20 of the country's provinces are now poppy-free, but the BBC's Chris Morris in Kabul says that does not mean they are free of the refining and trafficking of drugs. The UN report concludes that the bottom is starting to fall out of the Afghan opium market, with the price of opium at a 10-year low. The UNODC report praised the introduction of UK-backed "food zones", which distribute wheat seed for farmers to plant.

• "The Opium Poppy", Opioids.com.
• "Heroin", DEA.
• "Afghanistan: Opium Winter Assessment", UNDOC.
  

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