Heroin for Dummys
johnny_t
Creating pamphlets for folks telling them the proper way to use Heroin...
Heroin for dummies
By BRAD HAMILTON
Last Updated: 12:59 PM, January 3, 2010
Posted: 3:25 AM, January 3, 2010
Here's the latest smack on taxpayers.
The city spent $32,000 on 70,000 fliers that tell you how to shoot
heroin, complete with detailed tips on prepping the dope and injecting
it into your arm.
The Health Department handout has outraged New York's top drug
prosecutors and abuse experts.
"It's basically step-by- step instruction on how to inject a poison,"
said John Gilbride, who heads the Drug Enforcement Administration's New
York office.
"It's sick," said City Council member Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens)
"Foolish," said Columbia University drug researcher and treatment expert
Dr. Herbert Kleber.
The 16-page pamphlet features seven comics-like illustrations and offers
dope fiends such useful advice as "Warm your body (jump up and down) to
show your veins," and "Find the vein before you try to inject."
It even encourages addicts to keep jabbing if their needles miss the mark.
"If you don't 'register,' pull out and try again," it says.
The brochure sends the wrong message about the dangers of the drug,
experts said.
"It concerns me that the city would produce a how-to on using drugs,"
Gilbride said. "Heroin is extremely potent. You may only get the chance
to use it once. To suggest there is a method of using that alleviates
the dangers, that's very disturbing."
Vallone, who chairs the council's public safety committee, vowed to shut
down the distribution of the pamphlet.
"This is a tremendous misuse of city funds, and I'm going to see what I
can do to stop it. It sends a message to our youth: give it a try," he
fumed.
Gilbride and city drug czar Bridget Brennan noted that the manual does
have some sound advice. It stresses the importance of kicking the habit,
seeking professional help and not sharing needles.
But it also spells out how junkies should ready their fix and the best
ways to shoot it -- a bad idea when more New York teens than ever are
trying heroin, they said.
"What we do not want to do is suggest that there's anything safe about
shooting up narcotics," said Brennan, the city's special narcotics
prosecutor. "No matter how many times you wash your hands or how clean
the needle is, it's still poison that you're putting in your veins."
The guidebook, called "Take Charge, Take Care," has sections on
overdosing, testing for HIV and hepatitis -- and how to "prepare drugs
carefully" and "how to take care of your veins."
Kleber, a psychiatry professor, said the brochure could help save lives
but that it was "foolish" for the city to include tips on how to shoot up.
The Health Department defended its brochure, saying it was helpful and
necessary, and has been distributed only to addicts or those at risk of
becoming abusers.
"Our goal is to promote health and save lives with this information,"
said Daliah Heller, assistant commissioner for the Bureau of Alcohol and
Drug Use Prevention, Care and Treatment.
Asked why the handout tells people how to shoot up, Heller said, "From a
health perspective, there is a less harmful way to inject yourself."
The flier fails to identify the city agency as its creator and
distributor, and mentions only a group called LifeNet and the city's 311
help line as call-in resources to addicts.
LifeNet is run by the nonprofit Mental Health Association of New York
City, which is heavily funded by the city.
"It's certainly not ours," said association spokeswoman Beth Garcia.
Additional reporting by Melissa Klein
johnny_t
> Tax Dollars at work.
>
> Creating pamphlets for folks telling them the proper way to use Heroin...
>
NYC still has the download active, I suspect it will be down shortly,
but here it is...
>http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/basas/drug_use_take_care.pdf
BillB
"johnny_t" <nobo...@home.com> wrote in message
news:0020d79c$0$2140$c3e...@news.astraweb.com...
> Tax Dollars at work.
>
> Creating pamphlets for folks telling them the proper way to use
> Heroin...
pfffft...in Vancouver we give them a dedicated facility to shoot up
in, clean needles, and an on-site medical staff.
Mrs Iris Mike
OMG!!! I just read this pamphlet and all I have to say is I'm shocked.
Shocked, I tell you!!! They are handing this out in grades schools?
And its required reading for all third graders? No wonder W.Bush was
elected twice.
This is one of the stupidest, alarmist rants in nearly a day and a
half. $32K is a drop in the bucket for NYC public health. If one
junkie avoids an abscess, the tax payers will break even. If one
junkie avoids hep C or AIDS, then the tax payer will reap a windfall
by not having to provide care. This is $32K wisely invested.
Next thing you know public health pros will be telling women how to
avoid pregnancy, or instructing teenagers how to avoid VD, or
encouraging little boys to tell when a member of the clergy touches
them, or tell moms how to get FREE goberment vitamins.
mo_charles
> >
> > Creating pamphlets for folks telling them the proper way to use
> > Heroin...
>
> pfffft...in Vancouver we give them a dedicated facility to shoot up
> in, clean needles, and an on-site medical staff.
all canadians who aren't suckers, wire rick dollars.
mo_charles
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John_Brian_K
> in, clean needles, and an on-site medical staff.
You know what they REALLY need? A big ass field somehwere with unlimited
supply and a guy standing watch with a flame thrower.
==========================================
You must not think me necessarily foolish because I am facetious,
nor will I consider you necessarily wise because you are grave.
==============================
47.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
JBK
John_Brian_K
It is not THEIR fault they do drugs silly. This is just a GREAT helpful
guide for those poor people who are addicted.
==========================================
You must not think me necessarily foolish because I am facetious,
nor will I consider you necessarily wise because you are grave.
==============================
47.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
JBK
_____________________________________________________________________�
mo_charles
> > in, clean needles, and an on-site medical staff.
>
> You know what they REALLY need? A big ass field somehwere with unlimited
> supply and a guy standing watch with a flame thrower.
giving all the drugs to the maniac with the flame thrower doesn't seem
fair to me. other people did some work to get those drugs, why shouldn't
they be allowed to enjoy them too?
mo_charles
____________________________________________________________________�
John_Brian_K
> fair to me. other people did some work to get those drugs, why shouldn't
> they be allowed to enjoy them too?
>
> mo_charles
The guy with the flame thrower is not a user. He is there to burn the
bodies after they OD.
==========================================
You must not think me necessarily foolish because I am facetious,
nor will I consider you necessarily wise because you are grave.
==============================
47.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
JBK
_______________________________________________________________________�
* kill-files, watch-lists, favorites, and more.. www.recgroups.com
mo_charles
> > fair to me. other people did some work to get those drugs, why shouldn't
> > they be allowed to enjoy them too?
>
> bodies after they OD.
maybe the state could teach them the right amount of drugs to use? it
seems like a pretty smart answer. we could hire some test drug users and
turn them into experts. we could even create a state certification
process and pay democrats to run it.
mo_charles
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Mrs Iris Mike
Why are the 'pro-lifers' the first to suggest killing?
John_Brian_K
Shut up idiot
==========================================
You must not think me necessarily foolish because I am facetious,
nor will I consider you necessarily wise because you are grave.
==============================
47.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
JBK
_______________________________________________________________________�
looking for a better newsgroup-reader? - www.recgroups.com
Mrs Iris Mike
> > Why are the 'pro-lifers' the first to suggest killing?
>
> Shut up idiot
>
DaVoice
Still there, I just downloaded it in case I lose my medical coverage and
have to switch from Morphine and Oxycontin to "smack". :)
RC
Mrs Iris Mike
> "johnny_t" <nobod...@home.com> wrote in message
Consider, approximately 6,000 people die each year in this narco war
in Mexico. Billions of US $$$$s are spent to fight this war on drugs.
Our prisons are overflowing with drug users and trafficers. Add that
to the fact we have elected representatives looking out for our best
intrests. All those factors all jumbled together and heroin is still
cheaper than prescribed pain medication. Sick sick sick.
Mrs Iris Mike
Consider, approximately 6,000 people die each year in this narco war
Mrs Iris Mike
Consider, approximately 6,000 people die each year in this narco war
John_Brian_K
> >
> Another Palin supporter I see.
Didnt I just tell you to shut up idiot?
==========================================
You must not think me necessarily foolish because I am facetious,
nor will I consider you necessarily wise because you are grave.
==============================
47.6% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
JBK
---�
ContactGSW
> > > giving all the drugs to the maniac with the flame thrower doesn't seem
> > > fair to me. other people did some work to get those drugs, why shouldn't
> > > they be allowed to enjoy them too?
> >
> > The guy with the flame thrower is not a user. He is there to burn the
> > bodies after they OD.
>
> maybe the state could teach them the right amount of drugs to use? it
> seems like a pretty smart answer. we could hire some test drug users and
> turn them into experts. we could even create a state certification
> process and pay democrats to run it.
>
> mo_charles
Heroin is really weird. It has an occasional paradoxical affect leading
to respiratory depression and death even in the most sophisticated user at
their usual dose. We don't get too many heroin deaths here, just a crap
load of multiple drug ODs, at least half with drugs legitimately
prescribed. But I trained in San Antonio where we had a ton of heroin
ODs; the levels in the body were usually quite small. I think it may have
to do with small differences in purity and the rate of rise in the
concentrations at the respiratory drive center. If it was in the blood,
no matter how small, it got assigned as the cause of death. These people
would still have the needle in the arm sometimes. The lesson is, anytime
you get high with a respiratory depressant, you are at some risk of dying,
no matter how much you have been trained or how tolerant you are. But,
unfortunately Bea is correct, the cost of the spread of Hepatitis B or C,
or HIV, or abscess care far out-weighs the cost of autopsying and burying
a dead body. Ironic, its much more cost efficient for them to die, its
just that its a pretty low percentage compared to when they live and
spread all that shit, or go to the ER to have their boils treated.
Contacts
Chic, it doesn't matter what you do, (sniff), you're always gonna smell
like fish.
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