As Others See It: Heroin warning

As the Minnesota Department of Human Services reported this week that abuse of heroin and prescription opiates has risen sharply, Carol Falkowski came to mind. Last fall, in a Pioneer Press news report and follow-up for these pages, she said this: “Heroin is here, and we have never seen it like this before.”

We were warned.

This week, DHS reported that one in five admissions to addiction treatment programs last year was for heroin or other opiates.

… The warning last fall from Falkowski, drug abuse strategy officer for the Minnesota DHS, emphasized two facts of special concern: the availability here of purer, cheaper heroin and increasing use of prescription painkillers.

The concern is that abuse of common opiate-based painkillers can lead some users to heroin for a more intense, and cheaper, high.

… Pain control is one of the miracles of modern medicine. From routine trips to the dentist to end-of-life care, pharmacology has helped ease our way. As with everything, there are risks and trade-offs. The risk that mind-altering drugs — legal and illegal alike — will fall into the hands of people who will abuse them is constant. No public policy — at least not any that fits a free country — can eliminate that risk. But, because individual addictions often create collective consequences, public policy that mitigates the risk is useful. We took note last fall when Falkowski and others rang the alarm about prescription opiates and heroin. This week, it rang again.

St. Paul Pioneer Press

Tags: opinion