The heroin's still in the system, but what else happened? Trump took over and stopped the CIA smuggling poppies/opium out of Afghanistan's poppy fields which constitute 70% of the world's supply. Meanwhile, China got into the business making fentanyl which is synthetic and requires no actual poppies. Turns out they can make it even cheaper than heroin, so they sent it to the cartels, who started cutting it into everything and all of the sudden, our heroin epidemic became a fentanyl one.
Normally, the progression is that a person starts on the "safe" pills like oxycodone or hydrocodone. Whether they start recreationally or with a legitimate prescription under the care of a doctor, if they 1) stay on it too long or 2) take doses that are too high, they eventually run the risk of addiction. The addict then will try and keep using whatever "safe" thing they were getting, but that stuff's expensive, and prescriptions eventually run out. When the money or the supply runs out, they turn to heroin, which is cheap as hell and gives them a kick they haven't had in a while because of the huge jump in potency. Heroin's 50x more potent than morphine. Naturally, at that point, it's just a matter of time before they OD. Prior to fentanyl 50%+ of opioid OD deaths were heroin. It's closer to 70%+ now with fentanyl because it's 100x more potent than morphine, and they cut it into weed and E and the poor idiot kids have no idea what they're getting - and it only takes one to an opioid-naive person. Even a tiny spec of powder can absorb through the skin and kill you. It's that strong.
There are options even stronger than that, large animal tranquilizers, but I think the cartels don't mess with it because it'd kill their guys as fast as their customers. But they do go to the veterinary meds. Tranq is exactly that. Crocodile (however they mangled spelling) was another. Both eat the skin right off of the bodies of the junkies, so they remain as really niche products (thankfully).
The heroin's still in the system, but what else happened? Trump took over and stopped the CIA smuggling poppies/opium out of Afghanistan's poppy fields which constitute 70% of the world's supply. Meanwhile, China got into the business making fentanyl which is synthetic and requires no actual poppies. Turns out they can make it even cheaper than heroin, so they sent it to the cartels, who started cutting it into everything and all of the sudden, our heroin epidemic became a fentanyl one.
Normally, the progression is that a person starts on the "safe" pills like oxycodone or hydrocodone. Whether they start recreationally or with a legitimate prescription under the care of a doctor, if they 1) stay on it too long or 2) take doses that are too high, they eventually run the risk of addiction. The addict then will try and keep using whatever "safe" thing they were getting, but that stuff's expensive, and prescriptions eventually run out. When the money or the supply runs out, they turn to heroin, which is cheap as hell and gives them a kick they haven't had in a while because of the huge jump in potency. Heroin's 50x more potent than morphine. Naturally, at that point, it's just a matter of time before they OD. Prior to fentanyl 50%+ of opioid OD deaths were heroin. It's closer to 70%+ now with fentanyl because it's 100x more potent than morphine, and they cut it into weed and E and the poor idiot kids have no idea what they're getting - and it only takes one to an opioid-naive person. Even a tiny spec of powder can absorb through the skin and kill you. It's that strong.
There are options even stronger than that, large animal tranquilizers, but I think the cartels don't mess with it because it'd kill their guys as fast as their customers. But they do go to the veterinary meds. Tranq is exactly that. Crocodile (however they mangled spelling) was another. Both eat the skin right off of the bodies of the junkies, so they remain as really niche products (thankfully).