Word: addicting
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...heroin epidemic has hit us. We must face that fact," says Dr. Donald Louria, president of the New York State Council on Drug Addiction and author of Drug Scene. Dr. Elliot Luby, associate director of Detroit's addict-treating Lafayette Clinic, concurs: "Addiction is really reaching epidemic proportions. You have to look at it as an infectious disease." Epidemic, of course, is a relative term, but as a Chicago psychiatrist, Dr. Marvin Schwarz, says: "Now we're seeing it clinically, whereas before we weren't. The kids on heroin all have long histories of drug use." At the California-based...
First there is a "rush," a euphoric spasm of 60 seconds or so, which many addicts compare to sexual climax. Then comes a "high," which may last for several hours, a lethargic, withdrawn state in which the addict nods drowsily, without appetite for food, companionship, sex?or life. Heroin, says one addict bitterly, "has all the advantages of death, without its permanence." After the high ends, there is the frantic scramble for a new supply in order to shoot up once again, to escape one more time into compulsive oblivion. As the junkie develops tolerance for the drug, he must...
...user. The original kilo has now grossed $225,000 for suppliers, traffickers, pushers and peddlers. The first user often splits the nickel bag into even smaller quantities that he resells for $2 or $3, making a profit that he himself can use to help support his habit. Because the addict often does not know just how strong the stuff he has bought really is, he can easily give himself an overdose that makes him unconscious or even kills...
...normally under its influence. Loss of appetite and constipation will continue; he may look pale and undernourished. Look for signs of injections: black and blue tattoolike marks, small scabs or long scars along veins, especially on forearms, backs of hands and insteps, small drops of blood on clothing. An addict may keep his sleeves rolled down to hide marks...
...method is the so-called "British system," based on the operating premise that heroin addiction is a sickness, not a crime. As originally conceived, the system allowed British physicians who were convinced that complete withdrawal would endanger the addict's physical and mental health to prescribe maintenance doses of the drug. This was permitted only if the addict patient could not be persuaded to undergo a cure or enter an institution. The program had one obvious advantage: by making drugs legally available, it eliminated the addict's dependence on black-market suppliers and made it unnecessary...