Right now is an ideal time in our history to release as many serious high level drug traffickers from federal prison as we possibly can. All are felons and many have committed firearm offenses too.

It's called "criminal justice reform" and it's a top priority for democrats at the moment.

and one more a little closer to home where these things are not "the norm"

http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Magazine/November-December-2015/A-Mothers-Heartbreak-Heroins-Toll-in-Montgomery-County/

I have talked with the women in this article, laughed and cried with them, had them come to my support groups, they couldn't believe the things I had in common with their kids, good education, nice homes, yet...

but according to you folks hey all is good.

I just think the shortsighted posters on here are not willing to think, omg, this is real, this is happening, yes, even in the schools you pay so much for. I guarantee your kids know of someone who uses heroin.

Instead of attacking me, or saying I am not "the norm", go look at the kids who are using, they are not "the norm" either, go to a rehab clinic, they are not "the norm" either.
go to an AA meeting tonight and look at the "not the norm"

I just hope it ends better for the people you know better than the kid in his grand mothers car in Ohio or this guy having to tell his 8 year old son her mother died of a heroin overdose.

go ahead click on the links,

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ohio-boy-found-suv-overdosed-couple-new-home-article-1.2792045

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3834064/I-tell-mommy-died-night-Father-films-heartbreaking-moment-tells-son-8-mother-overdosed-heroin.html

I knew several young people who died of heroin and painkiller overdoses in the 90s and early 2000s. We were middle- to upper middle class in Baltimore County. Most of the families had no idea their kids were doing drugs.

It is an epidemic that is trending into the middle and upper class - as well as the perhaps "expected" poorer communities as, if you read the articles, the cost of prescription drugs is going up and heroin and its synthetics are more readily available and costing less. It is getting attention because it is effecting broader swaths of the economic base, so effects are wide. Sadly a friend's exceptionally talented, with seemingly everything to live for 27 yo (Montgomery Co) son od-ed and died just 10 days ago. 6 years ago, another friend's 18yo DD seriously OD-ed but did not die but was left paraplegic. What is not happening fast enough is seeing this as a mental health need and not a law enforcement lacking.

#thanksObama

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prescribed painkillers lead to heroin as others have said, not pot.

Want to bet? I used heroin long before prescription pills, long before. alcohol, pot inhalants, heroin, pills, jail, rehab, rinse and repeat and repeat

You went straight from pot to IV drug use? Were you with someone who was already a user? Pot smokers don't just wake up and suddenly decide to inject themselves with heroin.

Heroin user poster, you do realize you are not the norm, right?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Prescribed painkillers lead to heroin as others have said, not pot.

Want to bet? I used heroin long before prescription pills, long before. alcohol, pot inhalants, heroin, pills, jail, rehab, rinse and repeat and repeat

You went straight from pot to IV drug use? Were you with someone who was already a user? Pot smokers don't just wake up and suddenly decide to inject themselves with heroin.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:been happening for along time, things most parents don't think about when they turn a blind eye to casual drinking a pot smoking and then kids try to reach that original high and can never reach it so they turn to other things.

sure, argue alcohol and pot are harmless or your kid can handle it as long as they get good grades etc. Many other parents thought the same, fortunately I got help and i was just like your kids from the W schools and private schools.

Signed a recovering addict

Thus the heroin epidemics in Colorado and Washington and Oregon, right? All that legalized pot in OH, PA and WVA and MD must be pushing users for more more more.

http://www.cpr.org/news/story/colorado-drug-overdoses-almost-every-county-and-ahead-national-average

Do you understand what an average is?

http://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/statedeaths.html

"The below visualization shows drug poisoning deaths per 100,000 people in counties across the U.S. States with the highest concentrations of overdoses include: Kentucky, West Virginia, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. Historically, large metropolitan areas have the highest rates of drug overdoses, however, that is no longer the case. More deaths from drug overdoses are occurring today in rural and suburban areas."

http://conditions.healthgrove.com/stories/10921/state-overdose-rates

Anonymous wrote:Prescribed painkillers lead to heroin as others have said, not pot.

Want to bet? I used heroin long before prescription pills, long before. alcohol, pot inhalants, heroin, pills, jail, rehab, rinse and repeat and repeat

Anonymous wrote:Pot is a gateway drug. I remember Nancy Reagan telling me that.

And her psychic told her.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:been happening for along time, things most parents don't think about when they turn a blind eye to casual drinking a pot smoking and then kids try to reach that original high and can never reach it so they turn to other things.

sure, argue alcohol and pot are harmless or your kid can handle it as long as they get good grades etc. Many other parents thought the same, fortunately I got help and i was just like your kids from the W schools and private schools.

Signed a recovering addict

Thus the heroin epidemics in Colorado and Washington and Oregon, right? All that legalized pot in OH, PA and WVA and MD must be pushing users for more more more.

http://www.cpr.org/news/story/colorado-drug-overdoses-almost-every-county-and-ahead-national-average

Prescribed painkillers lead to heroin as others have said, not pot.

Pot is a gateway drug. I remember Nancy Reagan telling me that.