Heroin abuse has been on the rise in recent years, largely due to tighter restrictions on prescription painkillers. After losing access to medications, addicts often turn to heroin as a cheap alternative.
Lately, law enforcement officials from several states have reported that the heroin problem has gotten so bad that it’s resulting in a large number of deaths.
Heroin Growing in Massachusetts
Massachusetts is the latest state to see an increase in overdoses, possibly due to a tainted batch of heroin. The Boston Globe reports that the communities of Taunton, Attleboro and Salisbury have warned residents to stay away from a strain of the drug that may have been cut with other substances.
After testing some samples of the drug, public health officials in the state have found that heroin spiked with the synthetic narcotic Fentanyl has made its way to addicts. This toxic version of the drug has been blamed for the death of over two dozen people in western Pennsylvania.
Anthony Pettigrew, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spokesperson for the southern New England region, told the source that spiked or not, there is no safe version of heroin.
Is Heroin Here To Stay?
It’s safe to say that heroin has never gone away here in New England, Pettigrew said “I’m always interested when I hear people say bad batch. There’s no such thing as a good batch. There’s no good heroin. You don’t know what’s in it.
If someone in your life is battling a heroin addiction, now is the time to seek help. To learn about substance abuse intervention programs, contact Intervention Services today.