Heroin drought in the South West

Apparently the police are doing well in their fight against heroin trafficking to the UK as there has been a severe shortage of heroin across the Midlands, into Mersey side and especially in Bristol, Cardiff and Newport.

Drug users are reporting heroin has been increasingly harder to come by over the last few weeks and the little that is about, is of a poor quality. This has got me thinking, how does this affect the heroin user? Some I know have actually stopped using, preferring to sit out the drought and wait for something better to come along. But from my past experience the usual response is one of desperation; frantic phone calls and a search to rival that of the 'great escape' to find something of some kind of quality. If that fails, people will buy whatever they can get their hands on to see them through. 

This can be dangerous, more so to the IV heroin user, as the only gear they can get their hands on is very weak, containing a very high percentage of adulterants and can cause even more damage to veins, liver etc than the heroin they're used to using plus of course they need to use more of it due to it's weak nature.

More worrying though is what happens when stronger gear finally makes it way through to street level. How a drought normally works is that there is a lot of rubbish gear around for a month or so, interspersed with gear of a better quality but only available in small amounts for a very limited time. So, everyone's tolerance drops during this time (quite severely in a lot of cases) and they're also injecting more gear in every hit. Then as quick as it has come, it's gone, and everything goes back to 'normal'.

It's obvious what can happen during this time - lots of overdoses. People aren't prepared for the stronger heroin and by the time you find out it can be too late. Two types of heroin can be exactly the same in colour and consistency etc but be very different in strength. Nobody believes a dealer when they tell you their gear is top quality and to take it easy - because they always say that, even if their gear is shite!

So I'd like to ask people to be careful and warn others to be careful too - the drought won't last forever so if you're going to use IV heroin then ask questions of fellow addicts about the gear your buying and if there is any doubt just push a little in, wait for it to hit you, settle into it, find out how strong it is before you put the whole hit in. If it is strong you can always keep it in the pin until a bit later.

To reach recovery you need to stay alive long enough for everything to click into place - use safely!

Recovery-snakes and ladders:part 4

I walked back to my friends house and apologised to him for my actions, it was a tearful reunion. He knew what I'd planned to do with the money I'd taken, as I'd left him a note trying to explain my actions. I'd hoped my end would justify my means, it didn't.

I then spent the night in an empty flat and woke up to the landlord banging on the door first thing in the morning, kicking me out into the street. What had happened to me? What had I become? I knew I was sinking deeper into a life of pain and social exclusion, that's why I took the OD. Call me selfish but I couldn't face up to the fact I was sinking to a whole new level. Now I'd even stolen from a friend, I was scum. The only way I knew of dealing with these feelings, was by self-medicating, I needed to block out the self-loathing and despair I felt for myself.

I didn't think it could get any worse, but, little did I know the next 5 years were going to be a living hell. Over this period I couldn't even bring myself to look in the mirror. I was the lowest of the low, a failure who couldn't even manage to kill himself. I hated myself but was powerless to do anything about it.

Recovery-snakes and ladders:part 3

It was about 6 hours later when I regained consciousness, I was alone, it didn't look like anybody had been near me. I was absolutely gutted, what was I still doing alive? This could not be possible, I'd injected enough to kill a horse! I decided to walk up to the A&E hospital, not to actually go to A&E but to jump off the top of the car park there. I wanted the immense pain that my life had become to end, and it was the closest high building. A couple of hours later I was 7 storeys up. Looking down, I found that I couldn't jump. I was used to sticking needles in my arm but I'd never jumped from 70 feet before. It scared the shit out of me! I kept drifting in and out of consciousness so I decided to sit on the edge of the thin parapet thinking that the next time I lost consciousness I would just fall off. But, I kept on waking up, still there. This went on for hours and hours until I thought this isn't going to happen, I might as well get down. My problems now were even worse, I'd stolen the money I used to buy the gear from a friend, thinking that my end would justify the means I'd used. I was a complete failure, I couldn't even kill myself and now I'd stolen from a friend, something I'd never done before and now regretted. I didn't know what I was going to do, my options had run out. I was desperate and lonely.

'Shooting gallery' encourages users to get treatment

I read with interest Monday's Daily dose which highlighted a story from Vancouver, Canada, about a supervised injecting site which was recently reviewed by an expert advisory committee commissioned by Health Minister, Tony Clement to decide whether or not the site was having favourable results in the community it serves. The committee of experts in addictions, mental health and criminology reported that the site is well supported in the local community, provides good value for money, doesn't increase crime rates or drug use, actually encourages drug users to get treatment and necessary vaccinations, and also reduces overdose rates.

Researcher Dr Thomas Kerr commented,

"Overall, the report is very positive and confirms our research that the site is doing what it's supposed to do -- provide health benefits without increasing harm," said Kerr, a researcher with the Centre for Excellence on HIV/AIDS. "Now it's time for the federal government to honour the findings and stop asking if this program should remain open."

Sounds like a good result to me! A friend of mine works in a direct access, front line hostel as a support worker. In a recent conversation he mentioned that the charity he works for has investigated the possibilities of opening the same kind of facilities here. Their findings were that it was possible, legally, to do this here. Over the last two years, in this hostel alone, I know personally of 5 people who have died from overdoses while secretly injecting. This kind of initiative would have saved their lives. Addiction is about life and death, it's that serious, and it's time a radical new approach is sanctioned to minimise the harm caused to substance misuser's, so that they will still be alive when all the pieces fit together for their recovery. Could 'shooting gallery's' be that radical new approach?

Recovery-snakes and ladders:part 2

We last left my story at the point where I'd given up on life. From there I entered a long period of drifting with the flow, with hardly any hope of ever beating my addiction. Living in a hostel I was surrounded by drugs and drug users, I had no friends outside of these circles and only acquaintances within. Through these years many of the people I knew died, mostly overdosing and some through more secondary causes. I wanted the pain I was in, not just physically but mentally as well, to stop for good. I took a huge overdose of 10 bags of heroin, the most I'd ever taken in one go before was 2, and they were very small. This was not a cry for help, I believed this amount was guaranteed to finish me off and stop my pain for good. I cooked up and slammed it in, within ten seconds my hands and feet felt as though red hot needles were being repeatedly stabbed into them. Within another ten seconds my head felt like it was being crushed by huge weights repeatedly crashing into my temples as though in time with my pulse. Then I blacked out into unconsciousness.....