How to Slow Heroin’s Comeback
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Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- At first glance, the death of PhilipSeymour Hoffman, who was found with a syringe in his arm andsurrounded by dozens of packets of heroin, tells us little aboutthe wider opiate problem in the U.S.: Money and freedom from 9-to-5 schedules make successful entertainers frequent victims ofaddiction, but they’re far from typical.
Yet the attention generated by Hoffman’s death is areminder that heroin use is making something of a comebacknationwide, even though its use is still very rare compared withcocaine or methamphetamine. And ferocious enforcement hasn’tkept heroin prices from falling 80 percent over the past 30years, with no prospect that even-more-ferocious enforcementwould matter much.