Heroin: Not An Out-of-Reach Drug Anymore

Heroin is not as cute as the "button" in which it comes. In fact, it doesn't make anyone cute as a button at all. Modern heroin is up to 89 percent pure, and it seizes people's addiction ruthlessly and every time. It stalks addicts' minds and bodies every four to six hours.

Whether one calls heroin a button, bean, smack, horse, junk, boy, nod or "H," experts say the results on the human body are the same:  fast, furious and fatal.

Local community educators, law enforcers and support groups hosted a Thursday evening at to highlight current circumstances, particularly in St. Louis County.

See first article in a Patch series on this topic: 

DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) officer Jennifer Werges said the heroin seen in the Eureka and Wildwood area today is not cut in potency like it was in the 1960s or 1970s. "Miseducation leads people to think heorin is now safer than before, but it's not," she said. "In fact, because it's cheap at $10 a button, it becomes more attractive and most people do not realize it is as pure as it is, so they get hooked on it immediately."

Werges said because youths now can smoke, snort or sprinkle heroin into cigarettes—rather than merely injecting it—the drug has become too easy to not be tempting.

"Three buttons a day at $30 total is a cheap way to stay high," she said.

"Local people think this type of drug abuse only happens in inner cities, but heroin is becoming the preferred drug and it's happening right here in our local neighborhoods, to good kids and good families."

Werges said heroin buttons often are combined with other drugs or alcohol, which prompts people's bodies to go into a problematic cycle of stimulants and depressants.

She said she just emphasized the public problem of increased burglaries as a sign of creeping heroin use at a DARE graduation at in Eureka. The more public speaking she does, the more details residents confide, she said.

Increased news coverage in recent months on various aspects of drug use and addiction spotlight rises in heroin deaths, meth labs and prescription drug abuse, and several Rockwood community and coalition representatives have served as spokespeople in these reports. 

"With efforts currently under way to , it is essential that we remain vigilant and vocal on this issue," said Renee Heney, director of the Rockwood Drug-Free Coalition. "Marijuana and alcohol are gateway drugs to later addictions, and they must be taken seriously."

See previous Eureka-Wildwood Patch article from March: 

Editor's Note:  Return to Patch to continue with this series of articles regarding drugs and substance abuse. Sign up for community developments, announcements and events by receiving the free Eureka-Wildwood Patch morning newsletter by CLICKING HERE.