A Disturbing Trend In The Midwest: Handing Out Free Heroin
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Heroin is abundantly available. With new filler substances like synthetic opioids making the cost of heroin production cheaper for manufacturers, and the end product more potent, dealers are giving away their drugs for free. Reports from Chicago and cities like Columbus, Ohio have recently reported drug dealers giving away sometimes fatal samples of their heroin product for free.
The Columbus Dispatch
reported that drug dealers have been throwing small bags of heroin into the cars of people passing by as an offering to sample their exceptional product. In Chicago, a free sample of heroin was tainted with something stronger, likely a synthetic opioid like fentanyl, and caused a cluster of overdoses. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid originally created by pharmaceutical companies to accompany the needs of chronic pain patients who did not react to the effects of regular morphine-based opioids. Now, overseas illegal drug manufacturers have gotten hold of the formulas for synthetic opioids and are producing them to be stronger than the pharmaceutical grade substance. Undetectable by color or taste, today's heroin users cannot know whether or not their drugs will be laced with the life-threatening synthetic opioids.
For parents of teenagers and adolescents, free drugs--especially free drugs potentially filled with life-threatening substances--constitute an unprecedented threat. Stranger danger is something parents have taught their children for decades. Don't get into a stranger's car. Don't accept candy from strangers. If a stranger makes you feel uncomfortable, scream for help.
Today, our children are facing their greatest risk from their peers who are experimenting with drugs and need heroin use treatment programs. Adventuring to dangerous parts of town or hanging out with people using drugs can result in free drugs for an adolescent to try. Wanting to fit in, be a part of, and experiment with drugs and alcohol can quickly lead to a lapse in judgment and a decision to, essentially, take the candy from the stranger. Teens and adolescents are more inclined to risk-taking and impulsive behaviors due to their inherent developmental stage which still promotes a level of self-centeredness, meaning they aren't thinking about their future selves or the consequences of their present actions. Parents have to advocate now more than ever against experimentation with opioids. Sadly, rather than teach our children not to take candy from strangers in mysterious looking vehicles, we have to tell our children not to take free drugs from strangers who could look like a next door neighbor.
As a family, we can help our children recover from drug and alcohol addiction, promoting abstinence from opioids. Stonewater Adolescent Recovery Center is a residential treatment program nestled in the beautiful countryside of Mississippi. Remote and rural, our home is a retreat as well as a rehabilitation center to help young adolescent males build a positive foundation and cleanse their life of addiction.
Call us today for information about our addiction treatment programs: 662-598-4214
