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HEROIN IS THE number one drug for emergency department admissions in Europe, new research has shown.
Out of the 10,956 presentations looked at in the study, 24% of those presenting were doing so in connection with heroin or opioid use.
At various facilities across the continent three quarters of those presenting were male, with the majority aged 20 to 39.
The research has been conducted by the EU drugs agency the EMCDDA, with the purpose of painting a clearer picture of what kinds of substances are leaving people in hospital.
It was also found that the use of legal highs and research chemicals grew over the period the two-year study was carried out, rising from 6% of admissions in year one to 8% in year two.
What’s the situation in Ireland?
In Ireland, emergency departments in Drogheda and Dublin were included in the study.
Dublin saw more than 1,000 drug related admissions during the two years that were included in the survey, while Drogheda saw 49.
The geographical availability of drugs played a role in the types of drugs users presented at hospital for.
For example, around a fifth of people presenting in London, Oslo and Barcelona were for psychoactive chemical GHB/GBL, while the same drug accounted for less than 2% of all admissions to facilities in Ireland.
Ireland was also found to have a large proportion of legal high users.
What else did the study find?
Following heroin, cocaine- and cannabis-related presentations were the most common.
Alcohol and prescription medicines were common factors in drug admissions, with benzodiazepines and opioids commonly involved.
Across Europe drug users were also found to cause problems on arrival at emergency departments, with 26% of those presenting showing signs of agitation and aggression.
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Junkies should be refused admission. The facts are there. They are clogging up the system, and being aggressive with the people trying to help them. People who genuinely need help are consistently being failed by the system.
ban people who drink alcohol. drunk people abuse and assault emergency staff and drink is the biggest substance abuse issue in this country
Throw them in the drink tank.
They have a medical problem, alcoholism, but it ain’t gonna be cured at 4 am in the emergency ward.
Ok Ross. We’ll ban junkies from hospitals. And while we’re at it, ban alco’s from liver and kidney units. Ban smokers from lung treatment and obese people from cardiac units. Oh and ban drivers from treatment following road accidents. Health problem solved.
ROSS HEMP WRITES HIS BRIGHTEST THOUGHTS FROM THE COMFORT OF A BAR STOOL. We sympathise, Thanks ross
Drug abuse and alcoholism is an addiction. It’s an illness in itself. What about if they are actually trying to recover. You just let them die?
How many were from the legal and lethal drug alcohol? Responsible for more than other drugs I’d imagine judging by emergency departments on weekends.
Leave alcohol alone it’s great.
‘Tis but only in sensible amounts
Are you high, or did you just not read the article?
“Following heroin, cocaine- and cannabis-related presentations were the most common.”
“Alcohol and prescription medicines were common factors in drug admissions, with benzodiazepines and opioids commonly involved.” and “24% of those presenting were doing so in connection with heroin or opioid use.”
The minutiae of this study would be really interesting.
Interestingly enough, in American states where marijuana has been legalised heroin use greatly increased shortly after. And not just in poor working class areas either.
Heroin is now a middle class problem, the drug of choice for middle class kids.
Citation? Cheers
thats classic scaremongering right there
There is a HBO documentary called Heroin; Cape Cod I think. It covers the rise in heroin in that town since the laws about cannabis were relaxed. There was plenty of anecdotal evidence of an increase in heroin use. A lot of this is down to the old cannabis dealers pushing heroin as their business dried up. If/when cannabis is made legal the dealers will not just disappear.
Rather strange comment from a supposed Muslim Tariq/Liam. Considering Islam considers Jesus as a Prophet among all the other biblical prophets.
Also.
Once marijuana use became ‘normalised’ it lost any credibility as a drug for many youth who soon went in search of other black market substances.
No street cred in a drug easily available over the counter in shops full of middle class oldies talking about the good old days of Woodstock.
Wait, are you saying the evidence is anecdotal? That’s not actually evidence. Where are the statistics? This is a pretty big claim that requires more than “well I know a few people who started using heroin now that weed is legal”
I don’t think I would agree heroin is a middle class problem but the demystification of weed and people moving away from it seems like a positive.
‘Heroin use has increased 63% in 11 years
Heroin use in the United States has skyrocketed, spreading to include groups who previously were less likely to abuse the drug.
New data released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that heroin use increased 63% between 2002 and 2013, and heroin-related overdose deaths have nearly quadrupled over the same time period. In 2013 an estimated 517,000 people reported that they had used heroin in the last year or had a heroin-related dependence, a 150% increase from 2007. More than 8,200 people died of heroin-related overdose in 2013, according to national surveys published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
While heroin use continues to be most common among men between the ages of 18 and 25 who make less than $20,000, the CDC researchers note that in recent years people in nearly every demographic group are using the drug more. For instance, heroin use has doubled among women and non-Hispanic white people.’
Time Magazine.
http://time.com/3946904/heroin-epidemic/
Ahem!
No dice, Joey. You said heroin use increased in states where weed was legalised, those stats show no such thing.
Cocaine imports to the US have plummeted in the past few years, would you like to attribute that to marijuana legalisation without evidence too?
Heroin has moved across the social spectrum.
And just for your information, Crack use is at an all time high. And crack is cocaine.
Oh dear, epic fail by Joey, you get a big F.
“Heroin has moved across the social spectrum”
Cool story. Prove it has something to do with weed legalisation.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but cocaine and crack cocaine are different things. Cocaine imports to the US are down. By your logic weed legalisation caused this because it happened since legalisation was introduced.
Or does that only work when it suits the agenda?
In Heroin Crisis, White Families Seek Gentler War on Drugs
“Both the image and reality is that this is a white and often middle-class problem,” said Mr. Mauer of the Sentencing Project. “And appropriately so, we’re having a much broader conversation about prevention and treatment, and trying to be constructive in responding to this problem. This is good. I don’t think we should lock up white kids to show we’re being equal.”
‘When the nation’s long-running war against drugs was defined by the crack epidemic and based in poor, predominantly black urban areas, the public response was defined by zero tolerance and stiff prison sentences. But today’s heroin crisis is different. While heroin use has climbed among all demographic groups, it has skyrocketed among whites; nearly 90 percent of those who tried heroin for the first time in the last decade were white.
And the growing army of families of those lost to heroin — many of them in the suburbs and small towns — are now using their influence, anger and grief to cushion the country’s approach to drugs, from altering the language around addiction to prodding government to treat it not as a crime, but as a disease.’
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/31/us/heroin-war-on-drugs-parents.html
Different highs maybe…but the base is the same.
Colombian marching powder.
Embarrassing. Did you lose those stats that show increased heroin use in states with legalised marijuana, or did the dog eat them?
Heroin, U.S.A.: How the middle class got addicted
And the kids are going for it bigtime.
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2015/10/04/heroin-usa-how-the-middle-class-got-addicted.html
Middle-class habit: Heroin addiction breaks out of America’s inner-cities
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/middle-class-habit-heroin-addiction-breaks-out-of-america-s-inner-cities-9107719.html
Those kids contribute to the high statistic of heroin increase.
Impossible to ignore anymore.
Whoa there joey, where u getting your info on Fox News by any chance, as for heroin on the rise in America wouldn’t have anything to do with America controlling Afghanistan which supply’s most of the opium in the world. Portugal would be a far more relavent example to us here in Ireland , they decriminalised all illegal drugs about 15 years ago and amount of people using heroin has halfed in that time, and also the amount of new cases of people infected with HIV has dropped from just over 1,000 per year to just over 50 a year. But facts never stand in the way of a paid troll
‘Fox News’?
No.
New York Times.
Time magazine.
American Journal of psychiatry.
Independent UK.
Reputable sources.
(eats popcorn)
If you’re going by opinion pieces and documentaries, then I’d posit that heroin use has increased among white people because of the availability of prescription opioids.
How much of the increase is due to the tightening of laws concerning prescription drugs and the likes of pseudoephadrine based medication becoming controlled?
Junkies are going to heroine when they can’t get stronger drugs like oxycontin ect.
Did this all happen because I phrased my doubt poorly?
Sorry.
have your say