Killing Us: Just Say No Failed in the 80s and Fails Us Again

A front-page Washington Post article about a 16-year old’s heroin overdose caught my attention Sunday morning as I read through papers I had missed. The story is becoming all-too common throughout the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore, MD-Annapolis, MD triangle, where I live.
Who can say what tempted a young woman—a girl, really– to allow another young adult to inject her with heroin? By all accounts, the girl had not tried drugs before. When she lost consciousness, her “friends” did not respond as if it were an emergency; instead, afraid of the consequences they might face, they ditched her in shrubs and covered her with window screens. Police found her body a few days later.
As I read the article, I felt for a moment that I was back in the D.C. of the early 1980s, when crack was killing young adults everywhere, and the motto of the day was simply “Say no.” The Post article quotes an unnamed official as trying to “temper” the “disturbing trend” of heroin overdoses by “by explaining how potent and unpredictable the drug is.”
Indeed, the unpredictable drug—on the East Coast, lately, laced with an opioid called fentanyl—is Suspect No. 1 in Sunday’s death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, dead at 46, a syringe in his arm, and 50 glassine packets of a heroin-like substance in his New York apartment. Since September, at least 37 Marylanders have died, too.
Do officials honestly think explaining the dangers of drugs and alcohol will prevent the usual teen or young...

Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - February 4, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Story Source Type: blogs