The use and distribution of heroin in the state of New Jersey are one of the biggest threats to the state right now. You can find it readily available almost anywhere you go in New Jersey and it has a high potency. The most common heroin found is South American heroin, which is the most predominant, but you can also find Southwest and Southeast Asian and Mexican tar and brown powdered heroin in New Jersey as well.
High purity heroin at a low cost has attracted new and old heroin users since the early 1990s. According to the National Drug Intelligence Center:
Heroin was reported as the primary drug of abuse by 78 percent of all drug treatment admissions and was the most frequent ED mention per 100,000 (33%) in Newark in 1999. Newark was second only to Baltimore in the number of heroin mentions per 100,000 that same year.
Plenty of heroin arrives in New Jersey through the Newark ports, making New Jersey a regional hub for heroin distribution across the Northeast. It’s not a pretty title to have and local officials are fighting with everything they have to change the image of New Jersey for the better and to improve access to heroin addiction treatment programs.
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Smuggling Heroin into America
The main ways that heroin is being smuggled into the state is by air and land conveyances. Over 35% of the heroin that is seized in the United States is smuggled in on commercial aircraft and to distribution sites in New Jersey. New Jersey was one of the top five states in the country in regards to the quantity of heroin seized from commercial airlines between the years of 1995 and 1999 where nearly 270 kilograms of heroin was seized between those years.
New Jersey at the Center of Heroin Epidemic
One of the main reasons that Jew Jersey is the hub of heroin distribution is because of the Newark International airport. It is a primary entry point for heroin that can be shipped directly to New Jersey from overseas. There are direct flights to Newark International Airport straight from Columbia, Panama, and Peru, Aruba, and Brazil multiple times a week.
Many other countries including, including those from Southeast Asia, prefer to transport their cargo with the use of maritime vessels. The Elizabeth Port Authority Marine Terminal and The Port of Newark together make up one of the largest containerized port complexes in the United States. Both of these means of shipping cargo pose a huge threat to the state of New Jersey.
The article from NDIC also states that African American criminal groups in southern New Jersey are the dominant retail distributors for heroin. They also state that:
Nigerian and other West African criminal groups distribute Southeast Asian heroin, while Lebanese, Pakistani, Nigerian, and other criminal groups distribute Southwest Asian heroin at the retail level in New Jersey. Chinese, Colombian, Puerto Rican, other Caribbean criminal groups, local independent distributors, Jamaican “posses,” and numerous street gangs also sell heroin at the retail level in the state.
Heroin Addiction in New Jersey
Heroin has become such a huge problem in the state of New Jersey that good Samaritan law was recently put into place in 2013 to put Narcan, a known antidote to heroin overdoses, into the hands of parents and first responders. Drug dealers are now using a new strategy where they put a bad bag into a batch of heroin to purposely cause an overdose. On a normal person’s mind, this would be looked at as a warning to stay away.
But for someone who is addicted to heroin, this is an indication of where the stronger and more potent heroin gets to be found. There is now a new surge of people intentionally seeking out heroin laced with fentanyl because they are constantly searching for that “amazing high” that they want so bad that they are willing to lose their lives over it.
New Jersey Heroin Addiction Treatment
Garden State Treatment Centerunderstands the seriousness of heroin use and the impact that heroin distribution is having on our state. If heroin addiction is left untreated, the chances of fatality continuously increase. We focus on treating addiction with a combination of effective treatments. If you or someone you love has been struggling with heroin addiction, please feel free to give us a call today. We will discuss treatment options, and do our best to point you in the right direction.