MIR
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FIT
W27
MONTH IN REVIEW:
THE HEROIN EPIDEMIC
KRIS OCA ADVERTISING DESIGN
PHOTO COURTESY: THEGAZETTE.COM
“Heroin is pummeling the Northeast, leaving addiction, overdoses and fear in its wake,” said James Hunt, special agent in charge of the New York office of the DEA, to CNN.com. The number of users is rising and the age at which people are first trying it is getting lower. The use of heroin has officially become a public health crisis in small towns across the country. In Philadelphia last year, video was shot of a man shooting up in his hand while riding on a public bus during rush hour. At the Children’s Medical Center in Cincinnati, a mother died from an overdose after shooting up in her baby’s hospital room; the father was found unconscious with a needle and a gun in his pocket. In 2014, a couple overdosed in a McDonald’s there with their children only a few feet away. A McDonald’s bathroom in Maryland was the site of another overdose last year. At a Dairy Queen in Niagara Falls, a man left his child unattended while he shot up in the bathroom. He was found unconscious with a needle in his arm. Most recently, on Feb. 19, another man overdosed in the bathroom of the Cambria County Library in Pennsylvania. And in the tri-state area, it’s getting out of control. “Of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, from 20102013, New Jersey and New York ranked fifth and sixth respectively for heroin use in the past year among people 12 or older,” according to cbslocal.com. Ithaca, N.Y. has seen overdoses from heroin quadruple in the last ten years. Dealers sell it on the streets and in bars and users shoot up in empty lots and abandoned buildings, discarding their syringes in plain sight. Though the city already has many programs that are centered around drug prevention, Mayor Svante Myrick believes more needs to be done. According to his plan, aptly titled the Ithaca Plan, drug use is seen as a “public health problem rather than a crime, and focuses on treatment rather than incarceration. Central to the plan is a program to funnel people caught for certain petty offences, including low-level drug possession and sales, directly to social services by passing the usual sequence of arrests, courts, jails. It’s a program started in Seattle that has so far been successful,” states theguardian.com. There is also a strong focus on harm reduction with the proposal for a place where users can shoot up, under
Despite the results, opening a safe injection site will be a difficult battle to win. Ithaca’s police chief, John Barber, told theguardian.com, “I firmly support the exploration of a Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (Lead) program for Ithaca, but I am wary of supervised injection sites. As police chief, I took an oath to uphold the law and will not condone the illegal use of heroin, supervised or not.” According to cbslocal.com, “Long Island is also in the midst of a heroin crisis. Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano says at least one person on the Island dies of a drug overdose every single day. In January 2016, the Nassau County Police Department made 49 heroin arrests, and the numbers are even higher in Suffolk County.” Executives from both counties are implementing a new program that will trace the source of each overdose in an attempt to combat the growing epidemic. The reason that New York is such a hotbed of heroin activity is because traffickers use state thruways as a pipeline. In February, N.Y. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton stated that in just a few weeks, they had seized over 80 kilograms locally, “a clear indication of the scope of the opioid addiction problem in the New York Area.” But in no place is it worse than in New England. In New Hampshire alone, there were 325 opioidrelated deaths last year and 1,900 cases where the life-saving drug Narcan was used to reverse the effects of opiates. According to the New York Times, “The old industrial cities, quiet small towns and rural outposts are seeing a near-daily parade of drug summit meetings, task forces, vigils against heroin, pronouncements from lawmakers and news media reports on the heroin crisis.” And this is greatly changing the way addiction is viewed. People are no longer taking a hardline position and are beginning to see addiction for what it is – a disease. 32 states now have “good Samaritan” laws that protect people from being arrested if they call 911 to report an overdose. Almost every state has begun programs that make access to naloxone (which reverses the effects of opiates) easy for either emergency medical workers or friends and family of the addict to obtain. A recent study by the Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that 4.6 million individuals have reported using heroin at some point in their lives and that the average age of a first time user is 23. The study also found
PACKAGING DESIGN
that “669,000 people over age 12 had used heroin at some point in the year. About 156,000 of those were first-time users, and roughly 467,000 were considered heroin-dependent -- more than double the number in 2002,” according to cnn.com. Between 2012 and 2014, the number of people who have died from heroin overdoses has just about doubled. A recent study released by the New York Times states that three out of four heroin addicts used prescription opioids before switching to heroin. According to the CDC, 45% of those who used heroin between 2011 and 2013 were addicted to prescription opioids as well and those who are dependent on them are 40 times more likely to be dependent on or use heroin. Stricter regulations surrounding the prescription and sale of prescription opiates (like OxyContin) and a decline in the price of heroin due to greater supply from cartels are the two main factors attributing to this resurgence. Greater supply has also led to a recent uptick of heroin use on college campuses as well as in suburban and rural areas. Furthermore, it is so hard to detox from and you can become addicted to it after using it a few times. Much purer heroin is also being sold. In the past, heroin was often cut with so much filler that the only way to get high was through injection. According to Time. Com, “the purer versions currently available can be smoked or snorted, which make them more appealing to teenagers, the college-educated and people who normally wouldn’t come near it for fear of the needle… When you can snort it as opposed to inject it, it widens the audience for heroin.” What was once seen as an inner-city problem is now reaching across all demographics. Researchers have found that 90% of first-time heroin users in the last ten years are white. The number of those that belong to the wealthy or middle class is also growing. According to the CDC, “significant increases in heroin use were found in groups with historically low rates of heroin use, including women and people with private insurance and higher incomes. The gaps between men and women, low and higher incomes, and people with Medicaid and private insurance have narrowed in the past decade.”
Andrew, a 19-year old from Pennsylvania who did not want to reveal his last name, overdosed twice, on the same batch of heroin that killed 22 others. He told cnn.com, “That’s the sick thing about addiction. When someone knows that there are heroin bags that are killing people or making them overdose, then we know that those are the good bags.”
HUMANS OF FIT AMANDA TRIZZINO
BY DARA KENIGSBERG
supervision, without fear of being arrested. Such facilities are not legal in the U.S. but can be found all across Canada and in some countries in Europe. Each area that has one of these has seen massive drops in the number of heroin-related deaths.
MARCH 2016
25
Where are you going?
“Yes I am, but I’m an advertising design major.”
“I’m going to track practice, we have practice at the Armory, which is where I’m going right now. Today we went to the track on 145th street which is like super uptown, and we worked out. Even when I don’t have practice I run all the time. I love running, because even if you’re having a bad day you’ll always feel better after running. If you’re angry, not feeling well, or sad you just run it out and it always makes it better. And a runners high is a real thing! People doubt it, but it’s a real thing. But if you don’t have a good run it’s really sad, but that doesn’t happen often.
What made you choose this profession?
What’s your tattoo of?
“I like pretty things and nine to five jobs just don’t suit me [laughs]. If i did a nine to five job I would die four days into it, I’m just not suited for it. There’s too much constraint, there’s no freedom in nine to five jobs. My personality is not meant for that; I’m too shameless, vulgar and free-spirited. Also I want to emphasize the fact that graphic design isn’t just looking pretty, even though I like pretty things. As pretty as something is, if you don’t get your point across then what was the purpose right?”
“I designed it myself it’s of a running shoe and then it says ‘February 1st 2013’, the day that I started seriously and consistently running, so it’s been about three years which is cool. I run three to five miles depending on the day although I’m training for a half so sometimes I do seven miles.”
What book are you looking at? “Cultural identities book, it’s a graphic design book.”
Are you a graphic designer?