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Pshh....how many of us actually see heroin and gangs with our own eyes and how many of us are just reacting to some news story? Both definitely exist on LI....as they always have, yet neither are so prominent that they even remotely effect the majority of the populace in any way.
I have some friends who are real hardcore drug users, and I was no saint when I was younger either so I know a little about the drug trade on LI....what's hot, who is doing what, where it's coming from, etc.....and I_Love_LI_but hit the nail on the head. Prescription pain killers are the vice of choice for this generation. These are rich folks drugs....you will not find them in poor areas, or even areas that skirt the boundaries of working class & middle class like Brentwood. You can support a casual opiate habit without suffering withdrawals or spending gobs of money for a good 4-5 years before things get really rough, but when you've gotten to the point where you've gone from taking a vicodin ($5) a day to taking ten vicodins ($50) a day to crushing up and snorting two or more oxycontin ($160+) a day
it makes a lot of sense financially to switch over to heroin. Even for the snootiest of the trust fund brats, that's a whole lot of money to spend each day just to feel normal.....and once you've gotten to the point where you're consuming large amounts of oxycontin the difference is purely academic. Beyond the social stigma, the two drugs have basically identical effects and side effects.
Also, despite the news reports.....heroin isn't nearly anywhere as prominent as prescription drug abuse on LI. Not even close....perhaps the gangs dabble in heroin distribution (I'm not really sure), but as far as pills are concerned - take a look at your neighbor with the bad back or your buddy who had botched knee surgery and walks with a limp. The NUMBER ONE way these kinds of drugs get into kids' hands is through diversion of legal prescriptions. There's good money to be made, and flipping a few pills beats the heck out of taking a second job to stay above water on your mortgage. A bottle of 80mg oxycontin pills can retail for $20/pop wholesale at the street level. For a 'script of 60 that's an extra $1,200 a month, provided you've got health insurance! If nobody was getting high on grandma's pills, nobody would ever find their way to heroin. It's as simple as that.....nobody wakes up one day and decides to stick a needle in their arm, it's a lengthy progression towards ruining your life.
As far as gangs are concerned, the Latin American gangs that are getting a lot of press right now have existed on LI at least since the early 90s and haven't really grown in large numbers. I think police intelligence estimates put numbers of LEGITIMATE gang bangers at under 1,000 members....for the entirety of Nassau and Suffolk counties. There are a lot of young kids who will claim they're down with such-and-such to try and look cool....or even form their own little crew....that doesn't mean they have any ties to organized crime whatsoever.
They have gotten either more violent or more sloppy....or perhaps the police have just gotten better at tying assaults & homicides to gangs, I dunno. But realistically, this is not a problem for 99.9% of Long Islanders. These groups are concentrated in a handful of small areas, and just like the Italian mafia and the biker gangs before them, they aren't attacking or even associating with civilians. Seriously, how many people here have met - in your entire lives - a KNOWN gang member on Long Island....meaning it was definitely, 100%, absolutely confirmed? I seriously doubt anyone on here even has...
The following is a list of excuses people use to make themselves feel better that LI is the same as it was 10 years ago
People are being racist and dont like diversity, Thats why they think the town is bad Turn it all around that its all a racist thing
It happens everywhere ...not just Long Island so I dont care if there is more crime now
I never saw it so it didnt happen
There's beautiful beaches and good food
Someone responded to my last post by saying that gas stations have always been robbed , so have 711s , who cares
Have these robberies had the poor guy murdered , pistol whipped, stabbed shot to death. This used to never happen in LI ...so it is a different type of robbery ...called murder A robbery is not a robbery anymore if someone was murdered. In other words, some crimes are ok .
There are not that many people in ms13 , so who cares . ( Meanwhile , most of them are undocumented ) And meanwhile, Ms 13 is a hardcore national gang, very violent, who would want any in Long Island
The crime happened 10 minutes away ...not in my exact neighborhood as if people dont have cars to come into your neighborhood
There are gang member wannabes ...like its good to have people wanting to be like gang members.Some I knew in school got in just as much trouble trying to be like a gang even though they were just spoiled .
Some are Sean's ideas ...some are others ....its all the same over and over
Pshh....how many of us actually see heroin and gangs with our own eyes and how many of us are just reacting to some news story? Both definitely exist on LI....as they always have, yet neither are so prominent that they even remotely effect the majority of the populace in any way.
I have some friends who are real hardcore drug users, and I was no saint when I was younger either so I know a little about the drug trade on LI....what's hot, who is doing what, where it's coming from, etc.....and I_Love_LI_but hit the nail on the head. Prescription pain killers are the vice of choice for this generation. These are rich folks drugs....you will not find them in poor areas, or even areas that skirt the boundaries of working class & middle class like Brentwood. You can support a casual opiate habit without suffering withdrawals or spending gobs of money for a good 4-5 years before things get really rough, but when you've gotten to the point where you've gone from taking a vicodin ($5) a day to taking ten vicodins ($50) a day to crushing up and snorting two or more oxycontin ($160+) a day
it makes a lot of sense financially to switch over to heroin. Even for the snootiest of the trust fund brats, that's a whole lot of money to spend each day just to feel normal.....and once you've gotten to the point where you're consuming large amounts of oxycontin the difference is purely academic. Beyond the social stigma, the two drugs have basically identical effects and side effects.
Also, despite the news reports.....heroin isn't nearly anywhere as prominent as prescription drug abuse on LI. Not even close....perhaps the gangs dabble in heroin distribution (I'm not really sure), but as far as pills are concerned - take a look at your neighbor with the bad back or your buddy who had botched knee surgery and walks with a limp. The NUMBER ONE way these kinds of drugs get into kids' hands is through diversion of legal prescriptions. There's good money to be made, and flipping a few pills beats the heck out of taking a second job to stay above water on your mortgage. A bottle of 80mg oxycontin pills can retail for $20/pop wholesale at the street level. For a 'script of 60 that's an extra $1,200 a month, provided you've got health insurance! If nobody was getting high on grandma's pills, nobody would ever find their way to heroin. It's as simple as that.....nobody wakes up one day and decides to stick a needle in their arm, it's a lengthy progression towards ruining your life.
As far as gangs are concerned, the Latin American gangs that are getting a lot of press right now have existed on LI at least since the early 90s and haven't really grown in large numbers. I think police intelligence estimates put numbers of LEGITIMATE gang bangers at under 1,000 members....for the entirety of Nassau and Suffolk counties. There are a lot of young kids who will claim they're down with such-and-such to try and look cool....or even form their own little crew....that doesn't mean they have any ties to organized crime whatsoever.
They have gotten either more violent or more sloppy....or perhaps the police have just gotten better at tying assaults & homicides to gangs, I dunno. But realistically, this is not a problem for 99.9% of Long Islanders. These groups are concentrated in a handful of small areas, and just like the Italian mafia and the biker gangs before them, they aren't attacking or even associating with civilians. Seriously, how many people here have met - in your entire lives - a KNOWN gang member on Long Island....meaning it was definitely, 100%, absolutely confirmed? I seriously doubt anyone on here even has...
I have, And although it's not in my neigborhood it is in the surrounding areas. When I ride my bike If I ride for a good half an hour in the wrong direction I see gang signs, tags... graffiti. When I lived in Huntington, I would sometimes ride my bike through huntington station and there is quite a bit of gang activity springing up there recently. I am in the car stereo business...I meet alot of people.
Has it affected me? No
Do I see it around me? Yes.
You would have to live in a fluffy little fake world to not see it around you. If you dont see it its because your not looking.
I have, And although it's not in my neigborhood it is in the surrounding areas. When I ride my bike If I ride for a good half an hour in the wrong direction I see gang signs, tags... graffiti. When I lived in Huntington, I would sometimes ride my bike through huntington station and there is quite a bit of gang activity springing up there recently. I am in the car stereo business...I meet alot of people.
Has it affected me? No
Do I see it around me? Yes.
You would have to live in a fluffy little fake world to not see it around you. If you dont see it its because your not looking.
I think the cops are losing the battle with both situations but I do not think the two problems are that closely linked.
And everyone that thinks herion isn't affecting their town needs a wake-up call. There isn't a high school on LI that doesn't have daily users. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that almost everyone on this board has a neighbor or a family member between the ages of 14 and 25 that has used or is using heroin.
Girls in Massapequa high were arrested in NYC for hooking to support their habit, kids OD every week (and many die, I've been to two wakes in two months for teenage girls In suffolk) but out of shame their families brush it under the rug instead of telling the press what really went down.
I have a young addict in my family and if you met him you'd NEVER guess it. He descibes the progession of his addiction just as Sean said, this "kid" never thought he'd become a junkie that shoots up when he started taking pills a few years ago. I've also gone to NA meetings with him and another relative, seeing the demographic that attends NA now is shocking.
Herion is NOT for low income, uneducated people anymore.
the press and the police have not even scratched the surface on this problem.
I think the cops are losing the battle with both situations but I do not think the two problems are that closely linked.
And everyone that thinks herion isn't affecting their town needs a wake-up call. There isn't a high school on LI that doesn't have daily users. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that almost everyone on this board has a neighbor or a family member between the ages of 14 and 25 that has used or is using heroin.
Girls in Massapequa high were arrested in NYC for hooking to support their habit, kids OD every week (and many die, I've been to two wakes in two months for teenage girls In suffolk) but out of shame their families brush it under the rug instead of telling the press what really went down.
I have a young addict in my family and if you met him you'd NEVER guess it. He descibes the progession of his addiction just as Sean said, this "kid" never thought he'd become a junkie that shoots up when he started taking pills a few years ago. I've also gone to NA meetings with him and another relative, seeing the demographic that attends NA now is shocking.
Herion is NOT for low income, uneducated people anymore.
the press and the police have not even scratched the surface on this problem.
Amen Kelly.
That Massapequa story was crazy.
Its all over Suffolk too.
And youre right about the demographic.
Nothing sadder than a college educated upscale junkie.
The gangs sell dope in plain sight in shopping center parking lots with trac phones so they cant be traced.
Its sad.
I'm telling you if your picking up groceries and something looks shady...it is.
The gangs sell dope in plain sight in shopping center parking lots with trac phones so they cant be traced.
Its sad.
I'm telling you if your picking up groceries and something looks shady...it is.
Crooks
I'm not saying gangs don't sell it, I just know that the kid in my family never bought one bag from a gang member. He bought it from lilly-white, upper middle class kids driving luxury cars that he went to high school with. They started dealing to support their own habit, making daily runs in Brooklyn and the Bronx and bringing back 100 bundles a day to sell to other kids just like them.
I guess its better than stealing your mothers jewelry to support your habit.
Addicts with morals, at least their parents raised them right.
Too bad our court system & county jails are overflowing with these kids now.
They go from stupid kid to convicted felon overnight.
Everything Sean said about vicodin-oxy-heroin is spot on.
However, I don't think downplaying the gang issue is spot on. One gang member is too many. MS13 and the bloods etc making inroads on LI...however relatively small...should be viewed with alarm. If I wanted to live in LA, I would.
Seeing kids/young men walking around sporting gang colors (MS13 I've seen in malls around here, bloods on the street in bayshore and in the LOBBY OF MY COMPANY) is enough reason for people to react. Sorry if that's all up tight and suburban, but I don't want my son having to grow up around MS13 members, even if having them around gives the area some street cred as "bad a$$" to people too young and stupid to know any better.
Crooks, I voted what problem cause I live in Austin. I'm sorry, I just wanted to participate in your poll Didn't mean to skew the results or anything.
Now that I think about it, though, I did just return from a trip back to LI after an 18 month absence and it did seem different to me (will post later). I hung out with one of my HS buddies who is a teacher in a South Shore school district and he told me that there's more than one South Shore district that has a serious heroin problem.
As for pills, I have a Vicodin script for some disk issues. I don't abuse them and I have no desire to slam heroin anytime soon. I respect the drugs. Like Noel Gallagher once said after an operation, "painkillers are fun until you need them." I totally agree with Sean's post though, very well said sir. My drugs will be locked in a safe when my kids are old enough. I hope that's enough.
i see it (heroin) in Bethpage.
I've seen the mini zip loc bags on the street, at the park, and by the high school track.
Dangerous stuff. Playing with fire.
I've suspected the nearby DairyBarn-like establishment is dealing something. Lots of young traffic who i doubt are buying milk and eggs. I could be wrong about that.
Don't see much gang evidence around here.
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Didn't mean to skew the results or anything. 
