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Comment by shaunrussell | Hacker News Reader

I live in Rhode Island, and the heroin use is out of control. In the small town I grew up we lose someone to OD every month or so, and I have many acquaintances that are using. 5-10 years ago heroin use in the town was unheard of. All of the people I know that use started with Oxycontin, and then moved on to heroin when they became more desperate.

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It's bad in AK too, at least in Juneau. A city of ~30,000 people during the tourist season had at least 6 overdose deaths last year[0], and one particularly bad weekend saw 4 people treated for overdosing on heroin[1], and just the other day a seemingly healthy acquaintance of mine was found dead[2]. While they haven't ruled that one an overdose yet I think it's pretty likely.

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0: http://www.adn.com/article/20151107/juneaus-heroin-heartbrea...

1: http://m.juneauempire.com/local/2015-11-17/one-weekend-5-dru...

2: http://m.juneauempire.com/local/2016-01-15/juneau-man-found-...

That's how it is all across Indiana as well. It is awful. I was back there this summer to see a friend, had to find a new place to crash at the last minute because he had to go pull his brother out of a shed and let him detox at his house.

People are broke and broken. Very few decent paying jobs even with a college degree, if you are broke you don't have access to decent medical/psych care either.

Same. Went home to Indiana for thanksgiving, and found out my 4th grade best friend had ODed a few months before. Sad thing was, is that I wasn't surpised.

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