Heroin is competing with Club Drugs in Miami for the lucrative trafficking dollar. Partiers crowd the late night hot spots where they seek fun, companionship and club drugs to energize their dance steps and sustain them into the early morning hours. The non alcoholic juice bars are able to compete with traditional clubs because the younger population is switching from alcohol to any number of designer drugs which can be found in any club along Washington Avenue. Owners who may have been unable to open a club where a liquor license was necessary and ownership scrutinized find it relatively easy to open a juice bar. Cocaine, which was once the drug of choice, has lost its popularity to the less expensive X, Special K and GHB. Hospital emergency rooms are witness to the increase in fatalities associated with the drug abuse when the mostly 20 and younger crowd, mix club drugs and alcohol.
The supply of club drugs seems endless and where at times there would be a “dry spell” on the streets with cocaine this is not the case with the club drug shipments from Western Europe. The drug trade is lucrative and the money lost to Columbia Cartels has not gone un-noticed. The DEA has seen a sharp increase in the amount of Heroin on the streets of Miami and across the country. They estimate 70% of all Heroin in the US is coming from Columbia and the main portal is Miami. The price of this Heroin has been greatly reduced and the purity greatly increased. The rout of ingestion (sniffing and smoking) has changed but not the devastating effect on the user or the need for addiction treatment. The demographics and profile of the user has changed and the drug is now found on the South Beach where it competes with club drugs. The “high” is different but the price and availability has made it attractive.
The one thing that can not change with Heroin is the addictive nature of the drug. This drug is still an opiate and regardless of how it enters the body once there, one of the side effects will be withdrawal. Studies Show that Miami has more Heroin related medical emergencies than any where in the US. Drug Rehab Centers in Miami have also documented an increase in Drug Detox Admissions for Heroin Addiction. With all the glamor and excitement seen on the streets of Miami’s South Beach the seedier side, the drug trade, seems to go un-noticed until the bright lights of an emergency vehicle shows up to rescue one of the “partiers” As long as there exists a cross section in our population that seeks the use of drugs the traffickers will continue to compete for their money.
