The United States is in the midst of the worst drug epidemic in its history. More people die from overdoses of opioid drugs than from car accidents or gun homicides. The epidemic was fuelled by an aggressive 1990s marketing campaign led by Purdue Pharma that promoted the widespread use of opioids to treat pain and minimized the risk of addiction. Warning: This Drug May Kill, Sky Atlantic 2017
‘Less than 1% of patients taking opioids actually become addicted.’ ibid. Purdue promotional video
Prescription opioids include OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet, Opana, Demerol, Dilaudid, Norco, Fentanyl, Codeine. Heroin is also an opioid. Deaths from prescription opioids have quadrupled since 1999. ibid.
In 2007 Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to lying about the risk of addiction to Oxycontin, paying one of the largest pharmaceutical settlements in US history. Yet Oxycontin and other opioids remain a multi-billion dollar industry. More than 250 million prescriptions are written every year. ibid.
80% of heroin users started with prescription opioids. ibid.
With daily opioid use, physical dependence can develop within as little as one week. ibid.
91 people die every day from an opioid overdose. ibid.
Inside an epidemic: a radical new approach, the police and social workers on the ground, the personal battles, and the new face of addiction. Frontline: Chasing Heroin, PBS 2016
It’s been creeping up on us for a long time – America’s heroin problem. Overdoses from heroin and other opioids now kill more than 27,000 people a year and the numbers keep rising. ibid.
‘The marketing of OxyContin was the most aggressive marketing of a narcotic drug ever undertaken by a pharmaceutical producer.’ ibid. doctor
By 2001 Purdue was selling more than $1 billion of OxyContin a year. ibid.
Purdue Pharma admitted to charges of fraudulent marketing. The company paid $600 million in fines and settlements. ibid.
Mexican drug suppliers were ready: they would take the epidemic to a whole new level. ibid.
Up to 60% of addicts relapse in the first year after treatment. ibid.
90% of new heroin users are white. ibid.
One of three people referred to drug treatment come in through the criminal justice system. ibid.
Chicago, October 2 2015: 74 overdoses in 72 hours; Cincinnati, Ohio, August 2 2016: 20 overdoses in 12 hours; Louisville, Kentucky, August 31 2016: 8 Overdoses in 5 hours; Huntington, West Virginia, August 18 2016: 27 overdoses in 4 hours. Heroin Explosion, captions, National Geographic 2017
This is the story of today’s opiate epidemic which has been called the worst drug crisis in American history. There is a new generation of heroin addicts, young people that cross all social, racial and economic groups. ibid.
Every day 91 people in the United States die of an opiate overdose. 35 of those are from heroin. ibid.
‘This generation seems to have found prescription opiates as their drug of choice.’ ibid. Dr Deebi Bassam
Most first-time abusers of painkillers obtain them from a friend or relative. ibid.
Florida became ground zero for the growing epidemic … Dealers abandoned traditional street drugs to get a slice of the Florida pill business. ibid.
One clinic wrote prescriptions for more than a million Oxycodone pills in a five-month period. ibid.
Each year more than 46,000 people die from a drug overdose. Chasing the Dragon: The Life of an Opiate Addict, 2016
‘Being addicted to opiates is like chasing a dragon; you’re constantly seeking that first high.’ ibid.
Approximately one in five high school seniors reports misusing prescription drugs at least once in their lifetime. ibid.
A 2014 national survey found an estimated 1.4 million people in the US abused a prescription pain killer for the first time that year. ibid.
‘A girlfriend of mine introduced me to heroin; I could get a whole lot more for a whole lot less.’ ibid.
Most first-time abusers of painkillers obtain them from a friend or relative. ibid.
In the USA someone dies from a heroin overdose every 50 minutes. Smack in Suburbia: America’s Heroin Crisis, BBC 2016
‘Within three days they begin to develop a tolerance, meaning that they will go through some level of withdrawal if they don’t use, and they will need more and more to use to feel that original high.’ ibid.
Purdue convinced doctors they could use Oxycontin for patients on a daily basis and they wouldn’t get addicted. ibid.
Millions of people got hooked. And now on an average day in the US more than 650,000 opioid prescriptions are dispensed and nearly 4,000 people start abusing the pills. ibid.
Now middle-class kids and young adults are using it to get high right in their own neighbourhoods. Losing Their Souls: White America Hooked on Heroin, News 12, Youtube 53.01, mother
On a prescription pad: but when pills became too pricey their kids all turned to heroin for a cheaper high. ibid.
Dealers have made it so potent, students are getting hooked after one high. ibid.
In the past year alone, there have been at least 75 heroin deaths in Westchester, Rockland, Orange and Putnam. ibid.
Only one in ten addicts stay clean. The rest end up in jail, rehab or the morgue. ibid.
The devastating impact of illegal drugs: not on those who use them but on the 350,000 or so children whose parents have a serious drug problem. And the grandparents who are left to pick up the pieces. Dispatches: Mum Loves Drugs, Not Me, Channel 4 2008
Around 3,500 babies are born to heroin-addicted mothers every year: that’s 10 a day. ibid.
It’s Saturday night in Manchester and I’m on my way to meet a group of men who say they’ve had enough of heroin users in their area. Drugs Map of Britain II: Manchester, Heroin Haters, BBC 2016
Some violent shocking behaviour against the addicts. ibid.
In south-east Asia a covert CIA war will fuel a new drug epidemic: heroin. America’s War on Drugs I, History 2017
By 1970 New York City alone will have over 200,000 heroin addicts. ibid.
The French Connection heroin robbery remains the single largest theft in American history and it was done by the police themselves. ibid.
It’s been nearly thirty years since Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs. But nearly sixteen million Americas are regularly getting high on illegal narcotics each month. America’s War on Drugs IV: Heroin, Terrorists and Kings of Pain
As Afghan heroin floods the market, back at home the Bush administration pushes through a new anti-terror law that’ll change the face of the domestic war on drugs. ibid.
2001 Afghan opium production: 185 tons; 2011 Afghan opium production 5,800 tons = 300% increase. ibid.
After going for the border crossings in the west and east, Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel has come for the ultimate prize: Juarez. ibid.
The pharmaceutical industry also known as Big Pharma – they have hundreds of thousands of doctors on their payroll. In the last decade they’ve spent over $2 billion on lobbying … $3 billion is spend on drug ads each year. ibid.
The doctors were pushing Oxycontin also known as Oxycodone. ibid.
Copy-cat pain clinics began to pop up. ibid.
Drug lords in Afghanistan and Mexico are poised to meet the demand. An epidemic is coming: heroin. ibid.
In Huntington, West Virginia, I was spending time with heroin users. The city’s been swept up in the most deadly drug epidemic in US history. For several weeks I’ve been trying to get to grips with why. Louis Theroux: Dark States: Heroin Town I, BBC 2017
‘I’ve used since I was 12.’ ibid. 26-year-old
In Huntington as many as one out of four adults is addicted to heroin or some other form of opiate. ibid.
Last year in Huntington one out of ten babies was born dependent on opiates. ibid.
Heroin addiction: notoriously tenacious and treatment very difficult. ibid.