Heroin epidemic (Cincinnati, Dayton, Kent: lawyer, preschools, universities)

[Chemistry_Guy]

I ended up at a March Madness party this weekend with some friends and acquaintances of fairly diverse professional backgrounds. There was a M.D., a handful of lawyers, a police detective, a Cincinnati politician, and a social worker, among others. Somehow we ended up talking about heroin, at first about the problems in Covington and then about the whole city and region.

The cop, social worker, personal injury lawyer and M.D. all indicated that heroin use was incredibly widespread across the region both geographically and across social demographics. No one had any idea of exact percentages, but the cop and the social worker both said that heroin use was far and away the most significant problem facing our region. They said that they face problems associated with heroin use multiple times every day. They stressed that it was not a "poor people" problem and that it was a crippling issue for the entire middle class.

On the other hand, the corporate lawyers, finance/accounting professionals, P&Gers, retail clerk, aerospace engineer and I (chemistry professor) could not recall a single instance of heroin abuse affecting our lives in the last 10-15 years. The politician said he was aware of the problem due to reports and testimony, but that he never encountered heroin issues in his personal life.

Clearly, something doesn't add up. My friends who don't encounter heroin are not living in a convent or anything. My hypothesis is that heroin use is only an epidemic among the very poor, and that assertions that heroin use is significant among the professional middle class are based on isolated anecdotes rather than real statistics. The social worker said that this is absolutely wrong and that I surely know dozens of people who are secretly abusing heroin.

Are there any statistics to support my hypothesis vs. her assertion? Is there an explanation that reconciles both perspectives (e.g. widespread middle class use in very specific professions or geographic areas that we don't contact)? Does anyone have any insight as to who is doing all of the heroin in this city?

[Wilson513]

Their children are using heroin. They just don't know it yet. Unlike pot which people joke about and make only a limited effort to hide, heroin is kept as a big secret. Until there is an overdose or a car wreck, no one knows.

It is truly a serious problem.

[Chemistry_Guy]

Originally Posted by Wilson513

Their children are using heroin. They just don't know it yet. Unlike pot which people joke about and make only a limited effort to hide, heroin is kept as a big secret. Until there is an overdose or a car wreck, no one knows.

It is truly a serious problem.

Unless heroin is rampant in preschools, it would not be this crowd's kids. However, I just don't see the use among young adults either. Can you hazard a guess as to what percentage of college students in Cincinnati use heroin? My experience suggests it is at most only a handful per 1000 students or so. I work with a hundred plus college students every week, both at my institution and at other local universities, and while I occasionally hear students make references to marijuana, cocaine, antidepressents, and amphetamines, I have never heard even a veiled reference to heroin. I have never heard of it coming up in student disciplinary hearings either, and there are a high number of total drug incidents.

[cincydave8]

Yes, it's a big problem for the area and the country really. Locally NKY Hates Heroin is a good resource for some information.

[CarpathianPeasant]

Get one of those "authority" people (the politician possibly or maybe the cop) to call all of the local hospitals for an area-wide "overdosed patients" total for the last year. That's a start as not everyone OD's, but it is a most fundamental aspect.

One or the other of the lawyers should be able to tally up how many people were arrested, which is more information. Social workers would most likely be dealing with those in some sort of recovery, not those who have managed to escape notice.

"Poor people" is a bad way to estimate as "poor people" wouldn't have the cash to pay for the stuff.

As for the center of interest in Kentucky, don't forget the valuable cross-country highway interchange of I-70 and I-75 just north of Dayton. Kentucky may be closer to a Latin American source, but that ain't the only way in.

And, lastly it might be good to remember that a "professional level" user would be very ill-advised to be broadcasting use.

[mimi in cinci]

I know two families in the last six months in Cincinnati who have had children in their early 20s die of heroin overdoses. These are middle class families who's children had at least the beginnings of a college education before they became addicted.

[h Steve]

Right around Christmas I learned the nephew of a friend had passed away. He was 33 and in good health. Later I learned it was a Heroin OD. I had met the young man a couple of times and never, ever thought he had a problem. I was shocked. Your normal middle class family.

[unusualfire]

Can happen anywhere. 2 or 3 people that was associated with the Kenwood country died from overdoses.

[ABQConvict]

A lot of heroin addicts are 'functioning' at least for years into their addiction, so it is relatively easy to hide. It is not like meth where 6 months after the onset of regular use, everyone notices you are disintegrating.

[maxmodder]

Sounds like an interesting chemistry problem for your students.

Give them the structure of morphine, the structure of diacetylmorphine and ask them to provide the structure of what needs to be reacted with the morphine to form the diacetylmorphine (heroin)

You could give them the molar mass of 102.09 g·mol^−1 as a clue.

Then once they see that maybe they won't ever consider putting that stuff in their body.