New Bedford Narcotic Drug Addiction Statistics

New Bedford, with a population of 91,365, is a city located in the Bristol County of Massachusetts. New Bedford is famous as The Whaling City because this was one of the major whaling ports during the 19^th century. The original settlers inhibited the area surrounding modern day Dartmouth, and a portion of Old Dartmouth which was located near the western section of Acushnet River was named Bedford Village. This village was incorporated as a town in 1787 and was named New Bedford. The town was named by the Russell family, who were the most important members of the New Bedford community at that time.

The coastal city of New Bedford Massachusetts probably has one of the highest narcotic drug addiction statistics in the state. The local police force feels that New Bedford is an ideal location for drug traffickers to bring heroin and marijuana in the city, which is later distributed all across the state and country. Besides struggling to control the problem of alcoholism and drug abuse in the state, New Bedford has the third highest rate of AIDS patients in Massachusetts. The sharing of needles by drug addicts is one of the major causes of the spread of HIV in the city.

New Bedford was in the news in 2001 when the biggest drug traffic bust in the history of United States involving the discovery of 260 kg of cocaine was made. Since then, many drug rings have been caught in the city involving many youngsters. Heroin drug addiction and cocaine drug abuse is the main problem experienced by the citizens of New Bedford, followed by prescription drug abuse. According to the new report which has been published by the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, prescription drug abuse is soon going to surpass heroin drug addiction in the city.

The report findings suggested that the number of first time users who used a prescription drug for substance abuse was greater than the first time marijuana drug abusers in last one year. The study covered individuals belonging to different sections of society, of every age group, ethnicity, race, gender and religion. The number of users who used painkillers for drug addiction has increased by 3 times in last 3 years. It would not be wrong to say that opioid prescription drug abuse is now a bigger epidemic than swine flu.

The New Bedford Police Department recently shut down the offices of many doctors working in the city, as they were providing painkiller prescriptions to users for non medical purposes. The efforts of the local law makers have helped in bringing down the problem of drug trafficking in the city.

To deal with the problem of narcotic drug abuse in the city, help is available in the form of many drug addiction rehabilitation facilities available in New Bedford. A combination of medication and counseling is used by experts in these drug abuse treatment centers to aid complete recovery of the patients.

Love and affection of family members and expert guidance from the medical officers of drug abuse and alcoholism treatment centers could help the drug addicts make a fresh start in their lives.