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Mixing heroin with other drugs—such as alcohol and black market prescription drugs like tramadol, diazepam, and gabapentin—can lead to respiratory depression, resulting in a high risk of overdose. This is now more common than ever, and coroners are increasingly finding an array of drugs present in the bodies of people who have died after taking heroin.Questions have been raised about whether changes to the way people are medically treated for drug addiction—with an increased emphasis on getting patients off methadone and out of treatment—may have resulted in more deaths. But the evidence for this is not there to be seen.READ ON VICE: The Truth About Britain's Looming 'Middle-Class Heroin Crisis'
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When David Cameron came out with his smug "our drug policy is working, drug use is falling" statement in 2012, he was not only ignoring the basic rules of social inequality, but of the drug trade. If people want drugs, whether to enhance a night out or escape pain, supply will follow demand. In the months after Cameron spoke, the supply of heroin, ecstasy, and cocaine was back to normal after a two-year blip, and drug use started to rise.No matter what drugs are around, or that heroin has been shunned by a new generation, the fact remains: as long as people have shit lives, there will always be heroin, or similar coping mechanisms, such as crack, white cider, and valium. After rejecting the report, the government must have known that, as austerity took hold, the rules would change: poverty and social exclusion would increase its grip on places like Manfield, Corby, and Burnley. They must have known that more people would seek sanctuary in hard drugs, because it's what has happened for the last five decades. Social inequality breeds drug abuse, equalling a rise in drug deaths.The tragedy here is that with the drug debate nulled and vital drug services strapped for cash, the people most in need of help will find it increasingly harder to get it.Follow Max on Twitter.READ ON MOTHERBOARD: What I've Learned as an Internet Drug Dealer