Hold the cheese, please

CNN reports a cheap, highly addictive drug blend which includes heroin and diphenhydramine has killed 21 teenagers in the Dallas, TX area over the past two years.

Ouch.

Given its name because it looks like Parmesan cheese, cheese heroin is sold for $2/dose or $10/gram on the street. The low price point combined with the fact it can be snorted (not injected) creates a lethal one-two punch.

Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) is obtained from OTC nighttime cold medications. It helps with the depressant effect and keeps the price down. The cold medications are probably shoplifted anyway.

This is reminiscent of the birth of crack cocaine. Back when cocaine powder was $80-100/gram, along came crack cocaine in cheap, single-use rocks. The immediate high obtained from smoking (the high from snorting coke takes about 2 minutes) added to the popularity. No freebasing or volatile chemicals required. (See Richard Pryor) Crack was overwhelmingly popular--and addictive. Let's hope we can avoid this with cheese heroin.

Imagine if the person who invented and marketed cheese heroin put those skills to good use. Talent like that might even be able to re-market Paris Hilton when she is released from jail.

Nevermind. No one is that talented.