Heroin Overdoses Rattle The Suburbs

Heroin overdoses rattle suburbs

(Pssst "Suburb" is a code word for "White Folks")

If you listen to Black political discourse long enough you'll understand how important 'The Suburbs' are as a vital reference to appraise the condition of Black people against.  The veritable "1.0" to our fractional living.

• They have well-funded schools
• They have grocery stores with fresh produce and fish
• They have police that respect those they serve
• They have judges that give their first time offender kids a break rather than a jail jump suit

Just last week I heard on the radio a man who was running down "Black cops and judges" for not giving Black people breaks "like the White folks get from their people".  

From The Article

A cheaper high

Heroin has long trailed marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine in popularity locally and nationally.

But a 2010 Atlanta drug market analysis published by the U.S. Department of Justice found the highly addictive opiate is becoming more prevalent in suburban areas where it used to be rare. Forty-six of 62 metro area law enforcement agencies reported heroin was available at moderate to low levels.

Police think part of the reason is economics. At about $15 a hit, heroin is a cheaper alternative to prescription painkillers that can cost $30 to $80 a pill. Both are opiates and have similar effects.

Some who regularly abuse prescription drugs — and among teenagers, such drugs are second only to marijuana use — are switching to heroin when maintaining that habit gets too costly, said Joseph Ranazzisi, deputy assistant administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Office of Diversion Control.

Law enforcement and drug treatment professionals are alarmed about what the trend could mean for Atlanta teenagers. Heroin is highly addictive. And overdosing causes fatal respiratory arrest, especially when combined with prescription drugs like Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication.

“My fear is we are going to see an uptick in heroin abuse, given the potential crossover from prescription drug use,” said Dr. Brian Dew, a Georgia State University professor who recently served as the Atlanta representative for the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

‘Twice the effect’

Justin Shinholster, 21, was a casualty of that phenomenon. His girlfriend, Paige Bland, 20, said he got hooked on Oxycodone painkillers while living in Florida last year. Shinholster told her he switched to heroin because it was cheaper but has “twice the effect and it hits you faster,” Bland said. She persuaded him to move home and get off the drugs.

He was trying to do it through willpower alone when the pair moved into a Roswell apartment in January. However, Bland noticed Shinholster became bored and frustrated. He yearned to enroll in college and marry. But Shinholster couldn’t afford college, and Bland felt too young to get married.

“He had actually proposed to me the night that he passed away,” Bland said. The proposal sparked an argument. “He was messed up and I knew he was messed up. He got down on his knees and said, ‘Will you marry me?’ And I said, ‘Are you kidding right now?’”

Shinholster stormed out and Bland left the apartment. Later that evening, a friend found Shinholster in the bathroom of their home collapsed from a drug overdose. It was the day after Valentine’s Day.

Roswell police found a spoon with a grayish substance believed to be heroin and hypodermic needles on the bathroom counter, along with a small bag of the prescription anti-anxiety drug Xanax.

Shinholster died in a hospital three days later.