BDx13
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Hey Texas, what's up with this?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519...
Heroin-Related Deaths Rise in Austin
By JIM VERTUNO, Associated Press Writer
AUSTIN, Texas - Thirty-four people have died so far this year in Travis County from a heroin overdose, up from 23 last year. Authorities believe a
particularly potent strain of heroin being smuggled into the United States and circulating on the streets of the Texas Capital is partly to blame for
the highest number of heroin deaths in Austin since 1992.
"We go through this periodically," Austin Police Cmdr. Harold Piatt said. "The heroin being sold on the street is too strong for some people to take
and when you shoot it into your arm, it's too late."
For Tracey Crossett, that moment came on April 11, 2004.
A singer and bassist in a rock band, The Quicks, she had played a Saturday night gig in an Austin club, a show her father attended.
Around midnight, she arrived home in the affluent suburb of Lakeway. She went into a bathroom, fixed a hit in a syringe and shot up. Her father found
her around 6 a.m.
"When you think of heroin users, you think of old men in a gutter, not a teenager. It was only six or seven months from the first time she used to
when she died from it," he said.
Heroin's potency ? and its potential lethal effect ? depends on its purity.
Police say most of the heroin in the Austin area comes from Mexico and is known as "black tar" because of its sticky, hard consistency and dark color,
which comes from the manufacturing process. Dealers "cut" the heroin ? bulking it up to make more money ? by mixing it with water-soluble products
like powdered milk or chocolate, sugars or starches before it hits the street.
And it's cheap ? a typical dose sells for about $20.
Steve Crossett said a toxicologist told him Tracey's fatal dose was from Mexico. But the overall rise in deaths suggests Austin may have an influx of
stronger heroin from other parts of the world, said Jane Maxwell, a professor at the University of Texas' Center for Social Work Research.
Heroin from Mexico is typically regarded as the weakest; South American is the strongest, Maxwell said.
"It could be the Mexicans have come up with a new method of refining their heroin to make it purer," she said. "It could be some South American heroin
has come in from the East Coast."
"If it's the South American heroin, we are going to see lots more overdoses," she said. "Experienced Austin black tar users will overdose because it's
so strong."
Piatt said heroin samples from Austin have been sent to the Texas Department of Public Safety for testing but have not yet been returned.
Dennis Barkway, director of admissions at Austin Recovery, a nonprofit rehabilitation clinic, said he has not seen a rise in heroin-related
admissions, which usually means the drug is readily available on the street and powerful. More people seek treatment when the supply can't meet demand
or they can't get high off what they buy, Barkway said.
"When it dries up or there's bad stuff on the street," he said, "that's a good time to get clean."
Piatt said police have stepped up efforts to get the drug off the street, seizing almost 1,400 grams, about 3 pounds, compared to 37 grams last year.
Among the 34 deaths this year, 26 victims were 36 years old or older; the oldest was a 57-year-old woman.
Younger drug users are more likely to start with marijuana, crack and "designer" drugs like ecstasy before turning to the hard-core experience of
shooting up heroin, Piatt said.
"In my experience, it's the drug of last resort," he said.
Maxwell disagreed, noting that heroin is now available in snortable and smokeable forms and often pushed to new users with the promise those forms are
not addictive.
"There are many people who would never stick a needle in their arm but wouldn't think twice about smoking or snorting something," Barkway said. "Some
(addicts) can be almost dead and say `At least I don't use a needle.'"
Tracey Crossett first tried heroin when she snorted it at a party in 2003 because she was curious, her father said. She quickly moved to needles, he
said.
In November, the family sent her to rehab for a month. She seemed to be doing well when she got out.
Four days before she died, she told an addict support group that she had been drug free for four months and had "never been happier."
"I'm sure she figured she could do this one more time," her father said. "One more time is all it took."
If I fail math, there goes my chance at a good job and a happy life full of hard work.
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defstarsteve
Posting Freak
Posts: 3505
Registered: 11-19-2003
Member Is Offline
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it's called thinning the herd
pot is one thing but H
seriously lets smoke some crack too while we are at it
fucking idiots
I have about 2 more months here and then I can laugh at texas from the outside as well
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GabeTexasGAMC
* GROWN *
Posts: 1828
Registered: 2-22-2004
Location: Texas
Member Is Offline
Mood: Teenage Fanclub
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austin shouldnt even be part of texas, with all the fucking hippies and people who move in from out of town... fuck that place, let all those horse
users die in pain.
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Big Ugly
Member
Posts: 416
Registered: 1-16-2006
Member Is Offline
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Everybody knows how addictive and dangerous H is. I don't know why anybody would even want to try it. I guess they all figure it could only happen
to somebody else. Fuck 'em all. You use you lose as they say. If you're fuckin stupid enough to use H then you deserve what you get.
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PotisgoodforU
Junior Member
Posts: 11
Registered: 10-10-2004
Location: Houston nigga
Member Is Offline
Mood: 90.1
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ill say this about h, it sure makes alotta good fucking music, i wish i had the balls to do it
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ENDERA.x
Posting Freak
Posts: 1378
Registered: 12-2-2003
Location: Toronto
Member Is Offline
Mood: Icepick
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...................................................... H
i guess we are out of the loop or is that just the american name for it...
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Big Ugly
Member
Posts: 416
Registered: 1-16-2006
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by ENDERA.x
...................................................... H
i guess we are out of the loop or is that just the american name for it... |
The term H has been around for many many years. Seeing as we're from the same exact place I would have to say you're just out of the loop. Sorry to
be the one to have to break it to you like this.
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tireironsaint
* BANNED *
Posts: 4299
Registered: 5-14-2003
Location: Colorado
Member Is Offline
Mood: Beltones
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| Quote: | Originally posted by PotisgoodforU
ill say this about h, it sure makes alotta good fucking music, i wish i had the balls to do it |
Yeah, I wish
you did too. Have fun with that....
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ENDERA.x
Posting Freak
Posts: 1378
Registered: 12-2-2003
Location: Toronto
Member Is Offline
Mood: Icepick
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Big Ugly
| Quote: | Originally posted by ENDERA.x
...................................................... H
i guess we are out of the loop or is that just the american name for it... |
The term H has been around for many many years. Seeing as we're from the same exact place I would have to say you're just out of the loop. Sorry to
be the one to have to break it to you like this. |
haha yeah, I've heard the term used before but only once, so I was just curious.
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