Sarah Aviles died at 17 of a drug overdose after using "cheese" heroin for many years. She fits the profile of most users in the Dallas are where "cheese" use is highest: young, latino and from a lower income, immigrant background. Click image for the full report from Dallasnews.com.
The development of a new type of heroin has made the drug cheaper and more accessible to users across the U.S. This new variation of heroin, “cheese” contains heroin cut with the over the counter sedative, diphenhydramine found in Tylenol P.M. The drug arrived on the scene in 2005 and is commonly snorted as opposed to injected.
CNN issued a report on the rapid spread of “cheese heroin” due in part to the fact that it is so cheap. Users can buy a single hit for $2. They explain the name derives from the Mexican slang word for heroin, “chiva.” The substance also bears remarkable likeness to grated parmesan cheese.
Dallas, Texas saw what NPR described in an article as a “mini-epidemic” of cheese use in 2007.
“Cheese” is to heroin, what crack is to coke. While heroin is most popular among white, higher income consumers, “cheese” is most popular among lower income latino consumers. Additionally, drug suppliers have marketed the substance to a younger crowd.
To the surprise of teachers, parents and police, it has hit middle schools incredibly hard. “Cheese” use is now as common in some Dallas communities as smoking pot.
The NPR article quotes Dr. Carlos Tirado, who specializes in psychiatry and works with drug users. “Reports that we were seeing were pretty striking. Kids as young as 9 or 10 years of age coming to the hospital emergency rooms or detox facilities in acute heroin withdrawal.”
The addiction symptoms in some ways are worse with cheese as compared to heroin. While cheese contains a comparatively lower grade of heroin, it wears off more quickly causing users to use more frequently and experience withdrawal symptoms more frequently.
Users are tend to view “cheese” as a less serious drug than heroin making it more acceptable to use casually, in part because users sniff it as opposed to injecting it.
