Peace and Justice of La Luz

We have our booth again at the fair. This year we have several new volunteers and another speaker from LEAP.  The fair runs from August 11 through the 14th.  More info pending.

High-Purity Mexican Heroin Spreads in U.S.
An ultra-potent form of heroin that sells for as little as $10 per bag has been making its way across the border from Mexico, the Associated Press reported May 24.

Improvements in poppy refinement by Mexican dealers have driven purity up and prices down. Heroin imported from Asia and the Middle East in the 1970s was around 5-percent pure; now federal agents report seizing drugs at purity levels of between 50 and 80 percent.

The potent heroin can kill unwary users almost instantly if they are accustomed to using weaker versions.

Independent smugglers are driving the new trade from Mexico. While the major cartels focus on marijuana and cocaine, smaller traffickers pay for access to the big cartels’ smuggling routes.

According to the DEA, heroin seizures along the border quadrupled from 2008 to 2009. According to the AP’s research, heroin deaths in the U.S. rose 20.3 percent between 2006 and 2008.

“We’re seeing [heroin] sometimes 80-percent pure,” said Oregon state medical examiner Karen Gunson. “If you’re using it every day, your chances grow and grow that it’s going to kill you.”

Heroin Maintenance Can Help Hardcore Addicts, Study Finds

Heroin addicts who can’t quit using and don’t respond to methadone treatment can be helped by maintenance doses of heroin, according to a study conducted by researchers at King’s College London.

Reuters reported May 28 that heroin maintenance, while obviously not a cure for addiction, at least kept most of the hardcore addicts in the study away from street drugs, which in turn helped prevent use of dirty needles and other unhealthy behaviors. In fact, about two-thirds of the heroin-maintenance group tested clean for the presence of street drugs, a far better performance than among methadone patients, two-thirds of whom typically test positive for use of street drugs.

Some of the study participants stayed in the program for more than two years and were able to get jobs and reconnect with family members, researchers added. “People are not only physically getting better, but they’re getting back into society,” said study author John Strang.

The findings were published in the May 28, 2010 issue of The Lancet.