Pubdate: Sun, 30 Jan 2005
Source: Times, The  (Munster IN)
Copyright: 2005 The Munster Times
Contact:  http://www.nwitimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/832
Author: Pat Bankston
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

HEROIN KILLS LIKE NO OTHER ILLEGAL DRUG CAN

It is not a surprise to find out last week that Porter County ranks among 
the nastiest in the nation in heroin deaths and admissions to the emergency 
room. The combination of a relatively affluent teen population and a supply 
of cheap drugs close by in Chicago seems to breed kids who will try this 
drug and risk death.

It seems that no matter how good the family values, no matter how much 
teachers stress the ruination of life that drug use causes, no matter how 
much groups like the Porter County Community Action Drug Coalition try to 
spread the message and help, some kids keep trying and dying with heroin.

In grade school, the effort at early education about the dangers of drugs 
makes all drugs seem equal. So alcohol and cigarettes, and even our morning 
dose of caffeine, are taught as equally dangerous to health.

They are not. Heroin is the big kahuna of vicious drugs, and kids should 
learn that early. It will kill after a single dose, while many of the 
others kill more slowly -- some, like alcohol, only after decades of abuse.

Heroin, unlike any of the other popular street drugs, suppresses the 
respiratory system at a high dose. Since the dose is never known, each time 
heroin is tried, there is a risk that a healthy young body will die simply 
by not breathing.

It is the first try of heroin that is hard to prevent. It is difficult, 
maybe impossible, to have teenagers, who just have begun their experiment 
with life, understand the gravity of trying a drug that has the effect of 
controlling your brain forever.

I have used the word zombie to describe heroin users.

Probably that is a bad analogy. These kids behave, most of the time, just 
like you and me. But their addiction, the drug controlling their brain like 
some sort of internal parasite, makes them constant schemers to get the 
money and go to the places and find the people who can get them heroin.

They become liars, thieves and cheats, no matter how well they were raised.

It turns families into friends of the jails, because they know that their 
addicted kids are at least alive in the jail, not risking death on the street.

For you and me, who do not suffer from the internal parasite, it is hard to 
understand why the addict continues to use drugs, knowing they are ruining 
their lives and they could die with the next dose. It is not logical.

Of course. Logic has nothing to do with it.

Their brains have experienced a drug, heroin, that dwarfs all others in 
making their brain feel good, so good it will cause them to neglect 
everything they have learned up to that point in their lives to get more of 
the same drug.

Breaking their mother's heart becomes less important than getting the next 
dose. Losing a job becomes less important than getting the next dose. Going 
to jail becomes less important than the next dose.

Even the threat of dying becomes less important than the next dose. And they do.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager