Here Are the Charts Showing Vermont's "Full-Blown Heroin Crisis"

By artappraiser on Sat, 01/11/2014 - 1:25pm |

By Pamela Engel, Business Insider via Slate, Jan. 10, 2013

Vermont has a growing drug problem. It's gotten so bad that on Wednesday, Gov. Peter Shumlin spent his entire 34-minute State of the State address talking about Vermont's "full-blown heroin crisis." [....]

URL:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2014/01/10/charts_vermont_s_full_blown_heroin_crisis.html

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What next?

Could it be boredom?

Too much free health care?

by Peter Schwartz on Sat, 01/11/2014 - 6:13pm

The story is a stereotype breaker to be sure, that's why I posted it.

by artappraiser on Sat, 01/11/2014 - 6:15pm

And there's this conventional wisdom breaker in the linked NYT article:

“The Centers for Disease Control and most national experts agree there’s an epidemic of drug overdose deaths in America,” Dr. Harry L. Chen, Vermont’s health commissioner, said in an interview. He said the rate of overdose deaths across the country had tripled since 1990.

“Nationwide, more people die of drug overdoses than from motor vehicle crashes,” he said.

Dr. Chen said the highest rates of substance abuse were found in New England and the Northeast. No one really knows why, he said, except that the region is a wide-open market for dealers with easy access from New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Law enforcement can be spotty in the rural areas up here, and users are willing to pay top price

by artappraiser on Sat, 01/11/2014 - 6:19pm

Shouldn't read these things when I'm in a certain (depressed) state of mind. Ugh.

Perhaps a lot to do with un- and under-employment for extended periods of time. A generalized lack of optimism about what the future holds for us as a whole and for them as individuals. The dispiriting shenanigans of our leaders. The every-person-for- himself attitude that seems to pervade the culture. The apparent lack of funds for things we used to take for granted, e.g., police, fire department, health care.

Drugs blunt the psychic pain...until they wear off.

by Peter Schwartz on Sat, 01/11/2014 - 6:30pm

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submitted by artappraiser 1 year ago

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submitted by artappraiser 1 year ago

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submitted by artappraiser 1 year ago

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submitted by artappraiser 1 year ago

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submitted by artappraiser 1 year ago

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submitted by artappraiser 1 year ago

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submitted by artappraiser 1 year ago

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