Santa Cruz Drug Users Hooked on Mexican-produced Black Tar Heroin
May 21, 2010
Although heroin use has waned in other parts of the state and country, the opium-based drug remains the drug of choice for many users in California’s Santa Cruz County. Drug users—from high school- and college-age kids to people in their 50s—get their heroin fix at small camps tucked behind trees along the railroad tracks in Santa Cruz's Harvey West neighborhood or from drug houses scattered across the county. Most heroin used on California’s Central Coast can be traced to poppy fields in rural Mexico. Farmers sell their raw product to cartels, or the drug organizations grow the flowers themselves. Opium is extracted from the unripened seed pods of poppy plants. The opium is purified, then mixed with other substances, like coffee grounds or brown sugar, to dilute it and increase the weight of the drug. Black tar heroin grown travels north, crosses borders, and finds its way to Santa Cruz County, where it is sold for $10 a hit. Mexican and Salvadoran gangs control some of the drug trade, but dealers also are tight-knit Mexican families. The familial connections make it difficult for law enforcement officers to infiltrate the groups.
Learn more: Heroin
Return to view all news
Source
Santa Cruz Sentinel