Brian Palmer wonders:
Authorities in several states have sent out “contaminated heroin” alerts in recent weeks. The problem batches contain the prescription narcotic fentanyl, either mislabeled as heroin or mixed with heroin and sold under a brand name such as “magic,” “Theraflu,” or “Bud Ice.” Fentanyl is closely related to heroin but cheaper and between 50 to 80 times more potent, making it an appealing substitute for drug dealers and users.
He notes that fentanyl “kills dozens of people annually, often because users apparently misjudge the strength of a dose.” Meanwhile, Sullum catches the media exaggerating the scale of our heroin problem:
According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 0.3 percent of Americans 12 and older used heroin in 2012, compared to 0.2 percent in 2002. During the same period past-month use remained steady at 0.1 percent. According to the Monitoring the Future Study, past-year heroin use among high school seniors actually fell from 1 percent in 2002 to 0.6 percent in 2012.
MSNBC exaggerates the increase in heroin use by focusing on raw numbers instead of rates.
But it’s still pretty serious:
There are over 38,000 drug overdose deaths per year in the United States, 75 percent of which are opioid-related. And we are not the only ones experiencing tragedy; the Europeans are suffering, as well. Opioid overdose accounts for about 6,500 deaths per year in the European Union, and was recently cited as the number one cause of preventable death among young men in Spain.
Against this backdrop, Matt Steinglass makes the case for relaxing our drug laws:
New York City has no safe injection sites. It might have been impossible for someone of Mr Hoffman’s notoriety to use one even if it existed; but no one can say for sure, and there are plenty of at-risk people out there who might still be saved. (Mr Hoffman’s death comes amid a spike of heroin-related deaths in America.) More broadly, if safe injection sites, free government treatment for addicts and provision of free heroin to resistant addicts destroyed the profit margin for dealing heroin in New York City, it might become a lot harder for occasional users to get their hands on the stuff. Great artists and regular Joes will still hunger for mood-altering substances and will sometimes end up killing themselves, and we will continue to feel furious at them when they do. But we can channel that anger into finding ways to make their deaths less likely.
The Dish 