Wednesday, 27. December 2006
Topic: DRUGS - on December 27, 2006 at 1:14:00 PM CET
Afghan heroin in L.A. and the heroin price collapse
Today's scare story about Afghan heroin in the LA Times — planted by some staffer for Diane Feinstein, the Queen of the Camera Hogs — is much ado about what's really only a little bit of news. In LA County, heroin overdoses are up because purer Afghan stuff is coming in; elsewhere in the country, heroin overdoses are up because the stuff is being spiked with fentanyl. The problem of higher purity is mostly transitional; in steady-state, the risk of an overdose is higher with lower purity, because the chance of a big upside surprise is greater. Someone expecting 10% purity who gets 20% instead might die; someone expecting 80% purity is unlikely to suffer any ill effect if he gets 99% instead. Fentanyl is about five times the potency of heroin, creating enormous overdose risks; given a choice, I'd rather have pure heroin on the street than heroin/fentanyl mixtures.
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