Heroin has a rather long history in the United States, and it was after the Civil War that heroin addiction became a part of the American culture. Due to the use of morphine as a painkiller for wartime injuries, many thousands of both Confederate and Union soldiers were turned into morphine addicts. Although morphine had only been in the country a little more than 10 years, the U. S. was consequently plagued with a post-war morphine addiction problem of magnitude. It was in 1874 when a new “wonder drug” named Heroin was created in Germany, and shortly thereafter imported to the U.S. It was pitched to American doctors as a “safe, non-addictive” drug which their morphine addicted patients could use as a substitute drug. Unfortunately, Heroin was not safe nor was it non-addictive, and it still plagues our nation and its people today.
Another Artist Lost to Drugs
Phillip Seymour Hoffman is the most recent of a long list of drug-induced casualties, robbing our culture of yet another creative and talented performing artist. As with so many who have gone before him, it is an untimely death and sudden death, unexpected by his peers and fans.
His death appears to one of the most recent fatalities caused by a deadly mixture of the drug heroin apparently laced with Fentanyl, a painkiller which experts report to be 100 times stronger than the narcotic drug, morphine, and which is used in the treatment of pain in cancer patients.
Authorities investigating the scene found 70 packets of heroin in their search of the actor’s apartment, many of which were marked with the Ace of Hearts or Ace of Spades stamp. Such stamps are common as a means of branding in the drug-world, but the stamps are not something as legitimate as a trademark, and more than one producer or source of the drug could be using the stamp. It may be that the stamps on the heroin bags found in Seymour’s apartment could help investigators to identify and locate the source of the drugs.
According to a February 3rd online article in The Daily Beast, the lethal combination of heroin laced with the opiate drug, Fentanyl, has claimed the lives of nearly 100 people across the nation, from New Hampshire to the state of Washington since September. The mix, labeled as “Theraflu, “bud ice” or “income tax” recently showed-up in the Nassau County area of New York as well, reported to be the cause of 5 deaths there.
A Former Heroin Addict Speaks
A woman whom we will call “Ellie” in order to protect her identity at her request, recently complete the Narconon drug rehabilitation program at Narconon Arrowhead in
Canadian, Oklahoma.
Upon hearing of actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s heroin-induced death, she expressed the sadness it causes to lose someone of such talent, one who “dies before their time”, and so senselessly. Ellie said when she heard Mr. Hoffman “died with a needle in his arm”, she thought “my god!”when realizing that just 6 months before, it could have just as well been her.
Ellie went on to say that heroin is now a “very popular drug of choice”, and on the day that Hoffman died, there were likely more than a hundred heroin addicts who died somewhere in the United States from heroin overdose, but without the press coverage given to Hoffman. She added that it in those cases, it is only the family and the loved ones of those lost who will deal with the pain of that loss.
Her parting words were how thankful she was “that Narconon was there for me” and that for nearly 50 years, Narconon has been helping heroin addicts get sober, and lead sober lives.
Sources:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/02/prweb11553891.htm
http://www.narconon.org/drug-information/heroin-history.html
http://www.denverpost.com/avalanche/ci_25052436/officials-hoffman-found-likely-heroin-packs