Chasing The High: Heroin Users Are Seeking Out Overdose Deaths To Get a Stronger High

Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officials and local paramedics have reported that there’s been an increase in the number of heroin users who intentionally try finding locations where overdoses have occurred.

Special Agent Rich Isaacson of the DEA office which services Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky says that he and his agents have discovered that addicts will seek out places where overdose deaths happened in order to find a stronger strains of opioids and heroin.

Isaacson told WCPO Cincinnati News that it’s not necessarily a new trend, drug addicts have always had the mindset to look for the strongest drug they can get their hand on.  “So if they hear on the street that someone died of a heroin overdose — or an opioid/painkiller overdose — they’re likely to be intrigued by that and seek the location where that person got the drug because they know that’s going to be a powerful drug.”

Drug users have told Isaacson and his colleagues that they intentionally sought stronger forms of a drug even if they were aware that it had killed other users. One drug user told WCPO’s Scott Wegner, that he utilizes the DEA’s website to locate high crime areas within his vicinity on his quests to find drugs.

In addition to seeking out certain areas to get a stronger high, addicts are also mixing drugs dangerously to achieve a stronger high. Emergency room physicians added that addicts also mix their heroin injections with fentanyl, a powerful opioid pain medication. The power of fentanyl puts users at a higher risk for overdose and death.

The DEA stated they have seen a significant increase in fentanyl-related drug seizures within the past two years.

Although seeking a more powerful and deadly high can be perceived as nonsensical, Isaacson stated that “an addict’s frame of mind will lead them to believe they can handle it as they chase their high.”

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