Pledging and illicit drugs

[TXDG]

Originally Posted by DTD Alum

Heroin?? Weed is rampant in college age kids and many might argue harmless, but my understanding is that molly and cocaine are the big potentially dangerous drugs in today's college chapters. Heroin is not a social drug and not the type of drug one just "tries" because their friends are experimenting, unlike coke/MDMA. It still has an extreme stigma attached to it (and for good reason!). If somebody in my chapter had even tried heroin once it would be huge news and reason for expulsion, and there were plenty of guys who would dabble in the other drugs extensively.

Not to totally thread-jack, but heroin is a national crisis right now, and college kids are not immune to it. There was just a fraternity brother at Texas A&M who OD'd on heroin, and A&M is not a hard drug campus at all. I don't know if he was smoking, snorting, shooting up or taking it in pill form, but it was heroin.

A lot of kids are first introduced to drugs at "pill parties" in high school where kids raid their parents cabinets for whatever they can find- opiates like OxyContin and Hydrocodone are pretty easy to find. Some of these kids will graduate to heroin products once they run out - it's cheaper and more accessible. Some are prescribed opiates after athletic injuries/surgeries and become hooked. This heroin epidimic is hitting the middle and upper classes hard. It's not the "stereotypical" junkies shooting up in dirty drug dens anymore; it's a lot closer to Prince accidentally ODing on pain pills cut with fentanyl.

I hope our chapters are doing a good job of educating the women about the dangers of heroin.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by TXDG

A lot of kids are first introduced to drugs at "pill parties" in high school where kids raid their parents cabinets for whatever they can find- opiates like OxyContin and Hydrocodone are pretty easy to find. Some of these kids will graduate to heroin products once they run out - it's cheaper and more accessible. Some are prescribed opiates after athletic injuries/surgeries and become hooked. This heroin epidimic is hitting the middle and upper classes hard. It's not the "stereotypical" junkies shooting up in dirty drug dens anymore; it's a lot closer to Prince accidentally ODing on pain pills cut with fentanyl.

Exactly this. The fact that heroin is the second-choice drug is just amazingly f'ed up.

As far as the original post, I would tell your daughter to run like the wind from any chapters that spread such rumors.

[TXDG]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Exactly this. The fact that heroin is the second-choice drug is just amazingly f'ed up.

I agree. I think they mistakenly think if they aren't shooting up, it's not as dangerous. The dealers are mixing heroin with everything from OTC cold medication to fentanyl (pain killer that is something like 1,000 times stronger than morphine and typically used for cancer patients) to elephant tranquilizers. Users truly do not know what they are using and that is super dangerous. One dose could barely get you high one day, and the same amount of heroin could kill you the next day if it's mixed differently.

Across the US, more people have died from heroin OD's than in car accidents over the last two years.

If you have kids, teenagers, college students, etc in your life, you need to be talking to them about heroin. And educate yourself about what heroin looks like in 2016.

{TXDG hops off her soapbox!!}

[Munchkin03]

When I first read this, I suspected it was tent talk. I'm glad to see that everyone else agrees.

OP, I have to say that it's a good thing that your daughter told you about this, and expressed her disgust. Not sure I would have felt as comfortable telling my own mom about it. It sounds like she may have a good head on her shoulders!

I walk through San Francisco's worst neighborhood on my way to work, and it's heartbreaking how many people one sees just nodding off in the middle of the street, standing up. I've heard a few stories about mutual acquaintances getting hooked on heroin, but nothing too substantial for now.