Heroin Can Be Anywhere

It’s not common to hear much about heroin on the news anymore. Sure, when there is a major bust, that’s newsworthy, but as an ongoing problem, heroin takes a backseat to whatever the tweens are abusing these days, alcohol and cigarettes. When was the last time you saw a PSA about heroin?

But heroin is still out there and still a scourge. A prime example comes in a report out of Franklin, New Jersey. Two men were arrested for holding more than $62,000 in heroin in a hotel room. What you need to know is that, despite being in New Jersey, Franklin was voted one of the top 20 safest communities nationwide by no less than Money Magazine, based on crime rates.

The fact that a major heroin bust went down here points out that heroin hasn’t gone away at all.

The method used in that crime is a popular one among drug dealers. Set up shop in a hotel or motel room, preferably close to an expressway, and start selling. Regular customers are contacted by cell phone and bingo, you have a storefront – without the risk of having your house or car confiscated because it was used to sell drugs. This method gives mobility to the dealers and keeps the police guessing about where drugs are being sold. In this case, it was hotel management who noticed increased traffic and called police. If someone in the parking lot (who was also arrested) hadn’t flipped on the dealers, it’s quite likely they wouldn’t have been caught at all.

The old paradigm of a certain area in a major city being the “drug store” is slipping away. Dealers find privacy, security and less competition when they slip out of the inner city and into the suburbs. Not surprisingly, that’s where many customers are. Unlike some drugs that quickly degrade a person’s ability to work or even function normally, a heroin addiction can be managed by users – many go unnoticed in the workplace, until they crash.

Heroin use has fallen slightly in the past few years – there’s real competition from prescription pain killers. But it has leveled off and remains the drug of choice for dedicated users.