County officials focus much attention on the narcotics trade in the area, but that’s not the primary reason for seeking treatment at addiction treatment centers. Fort Worth, Texas, brings in cocaine more than any other drug, but black tar heroin comes in second. Black tar heroin easily flows over the border from Mexico or Colombia, and it’s a tarry, sticky substance rather than the fine white powder common in the Northeastern United States.
The Heroin in Texas
While you will find some of that white powder heroin that we already mentioned—it typically comes from Asian countries such as Afghanistan, which exports more opium than any other country on Earth—the black tar heroin often ships as a briquette that is soft and pliable to the touch. Its higher moisture content gives it this consistency, and it’s actually a little more difficult to cook down than the white powder. It is, however, easier to send over the border since it can be encased in flexible objects like balloons, transported by willing or unwilling mules, undetected by the border crossing patrols.
Tarrant County provides a website developed thoroughly for people who are interesting in finding addiction treatment centers in Fort Worth, Texas. The purity of heroin confiscated from arrests and undercover stings runs at 8 to 10 percent.
The purity level we mentioned might sound minimal but it is not. In some places the purity of heroin can run as high as 75 percent. In another part of the country when a judge heard that the heroin confiscated came in at 35 percent, he commented that it was high. The most important factor is knowing what it has been cut with. In many parts of the country this year, sales of heroin cut with fentanyl have been high. Users were unaware that their product contained fentanyl, and many people have died from it.
The Dangers of Heroin
Maybe you are reading this, not because you are using heroin yourself but because you are interested in looking at addiction treatment centers in Fort Worth, Texas, on behalf of a loved one. It’s important to become educated about heroin and prescription drug use. While the Narcotics team cannot provide educational services on an individual basis, it does a good job offering narcotic drug education programs to school groups, teachers, health professionals, and religious and citizens groups.
Police and judges alike recognize that heroin is simply one of the most dangerous substances that a person can put into their body, whether it’s injected, snorted, smoked, or whatever. The method that someone uses has no effect on its strength, so if someone downplays their heroin use by claiming they only smoke it, they really shouldn’t be fooling anyone.
Heroin depresses the central nervous system, and the obvious symptom of that is the “nodding out” that you are undoubtedly familiar with. We already know it’s one of the most addictive substances on the face of the Earth, without any input from Tarrant County officials, and people die when their hearts or lungs simply stop working.
Options: Addiction Treatment Centers Fort Worth Texas
Law enforcement officials often refer opiate and heroin addicts into addiction treatment centers in Fort Worth, Texas, rather than incarcerate them. There is a drug court in Tarrant County that works to educate and provide rehabilitation services to people who have been arrested for a drug-related crime. People cannot go into Drug Court if their charges include carrying or using a weapon as they committed the crime. They cannot go if they have used force against another person or caused harm to someone else. If they have been convicted of similar charges in the past at a felony level they cannot participate in drug court.
Referral to participating addiction treatment centers in Fort Worth, Texas, centers the individual directly within a triangle of treatment involving the court, a treatment center, and a mediating agency called DIRECT—Drug Impact Rehabilitation Enhanced Court Treatment, the local link in a nationwide network of programs. The Court cannot order what type of treatment is decided upon by professionals at addiction treatment centers in Fort Worth, Texas, and the substance abuse professionals have no input into the rulings of the Tarrant County judges. The people at DIRECT work as intermediaries between the two to make sure the person gets the best of both worlds.
DIRECT exerts influence on an addict’s decisions through its influence with the court. For example, if someone participating in a DIRECT program wants to revoke his authorization for the addiction treatment counselor to report on their progress to the court, DIRECT can work with that person to help them realize that without open communications, the Court could decide to violate a participant’s probation agreement.
DIRECT and also the addiction treatment centers in Fort Worth, Texas, work together to ensure that the person participates in a substance abuse treatment program of his choice and also gains access to resources involving domestic violence, community service restitution, victim services, job and vocational training resources, and much more. The Court, of course, mandates that the person remains crime free in order to access those services.
While many judges have frowned on methadone or Suboxone as a method for treating opiate addiction, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has recently stated that it will not approve requests for grant funds for courts that do so. Judges, it believes, cannot determine the course of therapy chosen by a person and their counselor.
Do you want to learn more about methadone treatment at one of the addiction treatment centers in Fort Worth, Texas, if you are addicted to heroin or other narcotics? You’re certainly not alone. Over the past five years, the Fort Worth narcotics team has confiscated illegal narcotics estimated to be worth five-point-five million bucks on the street. It has taken in more than a million dollars in cash, accumulated 129 weapons, and taken possession of about 80 vehicles that were used in the commission of a crime.
The scope of drug abuse has grown wildly over those years. Addiction treatment centers in Fort Worth, Texas, do their best to help people get their lives under control. That can include you.
