The price has gone down but not all that dramatically. That may be why such articles need characterizations such as “about as much as a six pack of premium beer” instead of just approximating a street price. If you had a 20 dollar bill you can get a dose of heroin in 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010. Quality, availability, dose may vary over time, by location or means or any number of factors, but it hasn’t changed so much.
I’ve attributed the rise in heroin use to it’s competition. Oxy-this and that, numerous opioid based prescription painkillers becoming far more available and far less expensive also creates a growth market when users can start out on a easy to acquire, far more socially acceptable, far less intimidating pill form for however long they need to become addicted to opioids.
That factor IMO would bolster the sale and use of street heroin far more than relatively minor, mostly market driven price fluctuations.
Blame big pharma for producing, marketing and distributing far more opioid painkillers in the past 2 decades than this continent has ever previously had a legitimate use for.
It hasn’t been, won’t be the illegal drug cartels that propel heroin sales upward, they’re just along for the ride.
Since the introduction of Oxycontin in 1995 it’s sales have eclipsed many times the volume of sales the drug was meant to replace, while at the same time the sales of those drugs continued to rise as their prices dropped & their production volumes increased. Drug companies argue that they have to produce and sell so so so so so much more than society has a legitimate use for or the abusers will get all of it and legitimate users won’t have any. Yes, laughable, all the way to the bank.
