12 Steps Again

Four foreign source areas produce the heroin available in the United States: South America (Colombia), Mexico, Southeast Asia (principally Burma), and Southwest Asia (principally Afghanistan). However, South America and Mexico supply most of the illicit heroin marketed in the United States. South American heroin is a high-purity powder primarily distributed to metropolitan areas on the East Coast. Heroin powder may vary in color from white to dark brown because of impurities left from the manufacturing process or the presence of additives. Mexican heroin, known as “black tar,” is primarily available in the western United States. The color and consistency of black tar heroin result from the crude processing methods used to illicitly manufacture heroin in Mexico. Black tar heroin may be sticky like roofing tar or hard like coal, and its color may vary from dark brown to black.

Pure heroin is rarely sold on the street. A “bag” (slang for a small unit of heroin sold on the street) currently contains about 30 to 50 milligrams of powder, only a portion of which is heroin. The remainder could be sugar, starch, acetaminophen, procaine, benzocaine, or quinine, or any of numerous cutting agents for heroin. Traditionally, the purity of heroin in a bag ranged from 1 to 10 percent. More recently, heroin purity has ranged from about 10 to 70 percent. Black tar heroin is often sold in chunks weighing about an ounce. Its purity is generally less than South American heroin and it is most frequently smoked, or dissolved, diluted, and injected.

Sobriety is more than just not drinking or using heroin according to Joe Petri, who oversees a drug and center in Delray Beach, Florida. “Of course, the first step towards healthy and lasting sobriety is to stop drinking and using drugs. However, there is much more that needs to be done,” he remarked. Petri went on to explain that when it comes to ensuring lasting sobriety it is important for a person to substitute healthy activities for those destructive and harmful behaviors that destroy an individual’s life and that it starts with the proper treatment.

“In order to get sober, the heroin addict will have access to healthy options, that individual needs to have the proper rehab facility,” Petri said. “In this regard, on many different levels, Delray Beach is the absolute best place to find treatment for heroin. In many ways south Florida has earned the reputation of being the recovery capital of the United States if not the world.”

Petri has lead the way in establishing a treatment center for safe and healthy recovery in Delray Beach in part because of the variety of activities and support services that are available in the community. Delray Beach is home to a wide array of different recreational, entertainment and cultural options that are well suited to people who are committed to improving their lives, who are dedicated to developing and then maintaining true, lasting sobriety not only today but into the future as well.

“There are a number of different treatment centers for heroin in south Florida. We wanted to show everyone that it could be done at an affordable low cost and still show more care and compassion to the individual who seeks recovery,” Petri said.

For more information about heroin drug treatment in South Florida, be sure to visit www.HelpForHeroin.com and www.InTheRooms.com.