Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Research Blogs -> New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library

Legal Research

: New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library

Oregon Heroin Death Trends "Ominous;" Up 29% Last Year

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime & Justice News

"One Saturday morning, Cathy Auer of Portland found

her 15-year-old son, Johnny, a high school freshman,

crumpled like a dead body, his skin gray, saliva

seeping from his mouth and nose, purple smudges

around his lips, reports the Oregonian. He survived a

heroin overdose, unlike a Reed College student who

overdosed in April and the more than 100 Oregonians

expected to die this year.

After Oregon's crackdown on methamphetamine,

police say heroin has become a cheaper, more

plentiful alternative, especially for kids tempted to

venture beyond marijuana and alcohol. One dose

costs as little as $15. It's hard to say where this

resurgence of heroin will lead. Heroin deaths remain

far below the highs of the late 1990s, but the trends

are ominous. Heroin used alone or with other drugs

now kills more Oregonians than meth and cocaine

combined. Last year, 115 people died from heroin

overdoses, up 29 percent from 2006."

The Oregonian - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001xkvCOqCHZkc1OWsFZk2SGlSHbfglSyKQYzEsNhqjFGOvZ_rHJxsgGK_b-ARJ5KYZfdgaDbCHBR3lTgKkU179CpMxHLaDr8ns3DQUS3e4lCIC5EQjyNa7ObGrRv0vDH94wQ_n-l10l6XukN3VeldORnOd5Wmbze_RjMif7kAewwKYG__tKPPSKvS4IJf7_b6oIZY6dBhvInKNFu0P2b3aMWOLDEtiOaG4

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on June 27, 2008 (boomark / email).