Derived from the flowers of a poppy plant, the powdery substance entices and kills. Making a quick entrance to the brain, an estimated one-fourth of users become addicts. With $25, users can obtain a quarter gram from street dealers; ultimately it will plague and destroy the body. Heroin usage is on the rise in Louisiana.
According to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Bureau of Vital Statistics, five years ago, there were 12 heroin-related deaths recorded. In 2012 that number climbed to 53 deaths, with 2013 statistics pending. Most noticeably Baton Rouge has experienced a significant increase in heroin-related deaths in the past year.    
“In 2012 we had five deaths because of heroin, and so far in 2013 there have been 27 deaths with two pending,” said Dr. Beau Clark, East Baton Rouge Parish coroner.
The changes began in 2010 when two drug-related laws were implemented in Louisiana. The first law made it difficult for addicts or dealers to load up on prescription drugs. The second law lightened the penalty for illegal schedule one drug distribution from a mandatory life sentence to a minimum of five years with a maximum of 30 years. Schedule 1 drugs are heroin, LSD, marijuana and ecstasy.
“The Louisiana Board of Pharmacy created this prescription monitoring program, which is a web-based program that allows physicians to search the prescription habits of the patients,” said Clark. “This was implemented to prevent something called ‘doctor-shopping.’ If you wanted to get a prescription drug like opiate, a lower tab pill, you might go to an emergency room and say you’re in pain. Then you may go to the next emergency room and keep going through that until you have as much as you can handle.”
Experts like Clark believe this shift in laws has encouraged the change in users drug of choice.
“Now all of these pain pill people are going to heroin. Heroin is a cheaper alternative to pain pills,” said Dawn Panepinto, public information officer for Tangipahoa Parish Coroner, after obtaining information from Jacob Swebel, a narcotics detective. “The laws were stiffened in one and lessoned in the other, which is the reason the drug of choice is changing. It’s changed from prescription medication to heroin.”
The drug problems in Baton Rouge have begun their dissent on the Tangipahoa parish within the past two years, corrupting the area after its long-standing clear record.
“The rate of heroin-related deaths has exponentially grown,” said Panepinto. “Within the last 2 years there have been at least 6 deaths; there’s some I can’t comment on because they’re still open. Since they changed the laws, heroin-overdose has quadrupled for Tangipahoa. Before that we haven’t had any here.”
Despite an apparent increase in heroin-related deaths in Louisiana, according to Roddy Devall, chief of police for the Hammond Police Department, there has not been a significant difference in the drug usage in Hammond.
“Anything is possible, but I don’t compare us to Baton Rouge,” said Devall. “We have an obvious difference in population, but I haven’t seen anything that would be alarming. I haven’t seen anything that’s significantly different from the year before. Most of our cases are misdemeanors.”
Several experts believe the standard sentence for distribution was changed due to the high population of Louisiana prisons as well as the non-violent behavior seen in dealers.
“Typically the dealers are non-violent. So why are we putting non-violent offenders in for their whole lives when jails are overcrowded,” said Clark. “That was the theory behind the change in the law.”
Louisiana is the world’s prison capital according to an article by Cindy Chang in The Times-Picayune, published May, 2013.
“The state imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of its U.S. counterparts,” wrote Chang. “First among Americans means first in the world. Louisiana’s incarceration rate is nearly five times Iran’s, 13 times China’s and 20 times Germany’s.”
Heroin is particularly dangerous due to the ambiguity of its purity level. Its purity level can range from 1 to 98 percent.
“Heroin is an opiate. When they use an opiate, they’re quicker to overdose,” said Panepinto. “It’s easier to overdose on heroin because you don’t know what the purity level is.”
Heroin is one of the cheapest illegal drugs, making it appealing to addicts despite stated dangers.  
“I think it’s the cheapest form of high separate from the prescribed pills. Now people are using heroin as a substitute for that particular high.” said Corporal LJean McKneely, Public Information Office of Baton Rouge Police Department. “In past years, there might have been heroin in the area, but it wasn’t as much as it is now.”
Panepinto believes the growing statewide drug problem stems from suppressed individual emotional difficulties.
“In Louisiana, I think people use drugs as a crutch for emotional problems more than anything else,” said Panepinto. “That’s how they cope with life and the problems that they have. In return, it doesn’t fix the problem; it compounds the problem.”
Commonly known on the street as smack, junk, brown sugar, dope, horse, skunk and other names, users regularly develop physical dependence. Heroin yields numerous negative effects including the risk of contracting HIV and hepatitis C from shared or unclean needles, developing collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves and liver or kidney disease.
“It’s a choice that people make. They choose or choose not to use it even though they know the consequences as far as jail time and the possibility of losing their life,” said McKneely. “You would assume that would be enough to encourage them not to use it.”
According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, the United States ranks first in the world in drug use as discovered in a World Health Organization study.
“America has the largest appetite in the globe for illegal narcotics. We have one of the strongest economies, and we can afford those drugs,” said Panepinto. “We can hope to contain it and combat it, but I don’t think we’ll ever win.”
Both Panepinto and Clark argued the law should be either reversed or modified in effort to combat the recent increase in heroin-related deaths.
“Our law makers do the best that they can, but they should reverse the law back to what it was,” said Panepinto. “The change in law was meant to help; however, it is having the reverse affect of its intended purpose.”
Some signs of drug abuse and addiction include missing work, neglecting family obligations or having financial problems, while symptoms include decline in physical appearance, sudden weight loss or weight gain, dilated pupils and bad dental hygiene. When approaching a friend who may have an addiction, according to Brown University Health Education, it is important to learn about the drug and its symptoms. Arrange to speak with the friend in private while he or she is not under the influence and be encouraging. There are multiple rehabilitation centers in Hammond and surrounding areas available for immediate help.  
For more information regarding Hammond Drug Abuse Treatment Programs call 800-943-0566.