Heroin (MAP)

The Guardian, 24 Jun 2014 - I did not believe it before I went to Afghanistan. But it's now clear that prohibition is no answer to this deadly scourge When Tony Blair deployed British troops in Afghanistan, ending the illicit production and supply of opium was cited as a key objective. In 2001 the prime minister linked heroin use in the UK with opium cultivation in Afghanistan: "The arms the Taliban buy are paid for by the lives of young British people buying their drugs. This is another part of the regime we should destroy." Yet after 10 years of effort with tens of thousands of troops in the country, and having spent billions trying to reduce poppy cultivation, Afghans are growing more opium than ever before.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, 18 Jun 2014 - TRENTON - A pilot program to equip New Jersey's police and first responders with a drug that can reverse the effects of a heroin overdose will be expanded statewide, Gov. Christie announced Tuesday. The program, which trains police and emergency medical technicians to administer Narcan to overdose victims and equips them with the drug, began this year in Monmouth and Ocean Counties. Since April, 40 overdoses have been reversed in the two counties, Christie said.

The Post-Star, 15 Jun 2014 - Editor's note: The rise of opioid painkillers such as oxycodone has had an unforeseen consequence, as addicts turn to heroin when pills become hard to get. Abuse of heroin has spilled across all social strata and led to an increase in overdoses nationwide. The trend has not skirted our area. Heroin has come to the Glens Falls area, attended by addiction, crime and death. A map of heroin overdoses in the Glens Falls region in 2013-14 is seen below. She thought he was sleeping.

The Post-Star, 15 Jun 2014 - The 2011 bank robbery spree gripped the region for weeks. One after another, banks around eastern New York and western Vermont were being robbed by a man and woman who brazenly walked into them, handed tellers notes that bore threats and made off with thousands of dollars in cash.

The Citizen, 11 Jun 2014 - State legislators have taken steps to addressing the growing heroin problem in New York. Now, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is wading into the discussion with some of his own actions to address the rising epidemic. Cuomo unveiled an initiative Wednesday to combat the heroin problem. The governor's plan includes adding 100 investigators to the New York State Police's Community Narcotics Enforcement team, or CNET, and providing naloxone, an antidote used to treat individuals who overdose on heroin, to all first responders in the state.

Buffalo News, 01 Jun 2014 - A plague of heroin addiction is upon us. Another plague. Heroin was the crisis that prompted Richard Nixon to launch the war on drugs in 1971. Time marched on. Cocaine and then crack cocaine and then methamphetamine overtook heroin as the drugs of the moment. Now heroin is back - and badder than ever.

Vancouver 24hours, 30 May 2014 - Providence Health Care will be allowed to prescribe heroin for a clinical study until a decision is rendered after a court trial sometime next year A PROVIDENCE HEALTH CARE program to give 202 addicts prescription heroin to compare the drug's affect to replacement medication has been given the green light by the courts. Providence Health Care's controversial prescription heroin study can proceed once again after an injunction was approved by the B.C. Supreme Court Thursday.

Globe and Mail, 30 May 2014 - Entrenched addicts who were prescribed heroin as part of a B.C.-based clinical trial will be able to continue receiving the drug while a larger constitutional challenge is before the courts. B.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson released his decision on Thursday, finding risks associated with severe heroin addiction "will be reduced if [the addicts] receive injectable diacetylmorphine (heroin) treatment from Providence physicians."