Do you think this is a pay-back move?

[The Backlash Cometh]

AP IMPACT: Deadly, ultra-pure heroin arrives in US


In this April 22, 2010 photo, Sue Tayon poses for a photo in her home holding an urn containing her daughter Nikki Tayon's ashes in Overland, Mo. Tayo AP – In this April 22, 2010 photo, Sue Tayon poses for a photo in her home holding an urn containing her daughter …
ALICIA A. CALDWELL, Associated Press Writers Alicia A. Caldwell, Associated Press Writers – 40 mins ago

WINFIELD, Mo. – Mexican drug smugglers are increasingly peddling a form of ultra-potent heroin that sells for as little as $10 a bag and is so pure it can kill unsuspecting users instantly, sometimes before they even remove the syringe from their veins.

An Associated Press review of drug overdose data shows that so-called "black tar" heroin - named for its dark, gooey consistency - and other forms of the drug are contributing to a spike in overdose deaths across the nation and attracting a new generation of users who are caught off guard by its potency.

"We found people who snorted it lying face-down with the straw lying next to them," said Patrick O'Neil, coroner in suburban Chicago's Will County, where annual heroin deaths have nearly tripled - from 10 to 29 - since 2006. "It's so potent that we occasionally find the needle in the arm at the death scene."

Authorities are concerned that the potency and price of the heroin from Mexico and Colombia could widen the drug's appeal, just as crack did for cocaine decades ago.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100524/ap_on_re_us/us_drug_war_mexican_heroin_3

[Freddie Stubbs]

1. Sound like these chuckle-heads are creating a product that eliminates repeat customers

That is a bad business move.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Exactly. It's a bad business move.

So, do they have another motive? Like hitting America in its own Achilles Heel?

[Warpy]

7. They expected it to be stepped on by the dealers

and the potency diluted. Every once in a blue moon, some hot stuff sneaks through and a lot of addicts die from it before the word gets around.

That's another problem with the black market: no quality control, whatsoever. That means you can be shooting cement dust into your veins along with your drugs and it also means you never know how strong those drugs are going to be.

Legalizing it would keep junkies alive until they're ready to seek treatment.

Prohibition is not working and it's killing people as well as driving the huge amount of street crime in this country.

[Scuba]

8. +1

[Cary]

2. Seems like a bad business move to me.

Kill off who? Your best customers in retaliation for non-customers' crack down?

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Do you remember the message from the movie, Traffic?

When the father goes to the pimp's run-down apartment to bribe him with money to leave his daughter alone. And the pimp wouldn't take the money, because he didn't have to? It wasn't about the money.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. WOW they are not cutting enough

no the pay back is the war on drugs moving north... it will hit your news media one of these centuries.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Interesting thread on what may be a related issue:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8405629