Addiction Is Overpowering Sobriety At A Scary Rate

Chapter 3, “A Community of Addicted Bodies”, traces how physical and emotional dependence on heroin creates a social hierarchy within the

This literature review will focus mainly on the drug use of heroin, the scary numbers behind the drug and the sudden rise of overdosing on the drug across the United States. Issues that will be discussed are what is Heroin, what’s in Heroin that makes it addicting, how it can increase the users risk of contracting other life threatening diseases and where it’s use and abuse are most popular across the United states and we will take a look at multiple studies that show examples of our new drug problem in the United States. While we looked at how homicide rates have dropped while in class, the flip side to that is that the amount of drug usage has risen.

A heroin overdose is generally a familiar, yet taboo, subject in today’s culture. It is familiar because one can witness the drug’s devastating effects like crime, imprisonment, and death within their community. It is taboo because it is culturally unacceptable and embarrassing to use an illegal product. Heroin overdoses have become a huge epidemic in Northwest Ohio, due in large part, to a misinformed culture, an influx of pain management programs, mixed drug toxicity, and a user’s desire to abuse laced heroin. With doctors, scientists, and researchers desperately searching for an answer to why heroin addiction is so prevalent, our community can find relief by being properly informed on

Often referred to as the “devil’s drug”, heroin in today’s society holds responsibility as one of the top killers next to murder, suicide, and car accidents. From 2002 to 2013, the number of deaths by heroin has quadrupled. In 2007, approximately 2,000 lives were taking by heroin, and these numbers increased to 8,000 by 2013. Heroin has affected thousands of people lives and killed many at an alarming rate; it now holds a spot as an epidemic in the United States. In a poem by an anonymous author, the effects of heroin are described explicitly, “If you try me, be warned this is no game. If given the chance, I’ll drive you insane. I’ll ravish your body; I’ll control your mind. I’ll own you completely; your soul will be mine.” Thousands of

I truly believe that if you can approach and tackle an issue before it arises you have a better chance of preventing long-term issues that will emerge in the future. Through my studies I have learned that if you educate students on bad choice making and the consequences that come from it you have a better chance for those students not to make those bad decisions. For this Midterm Project I plan to target high school students and inform them about drug use and abuse. In my opinion I think that if we teach high school students the effects that drugs can have on your body and your future maybe we can prevent them from using drugs for the first time or stop the issue before it gets out of hand. Students who are in high school can be hard to talk to but if you use material and language that catches their attention your speech can very influential to them. I want to prevent teens from using drugs. I want and need them to be educated on all the harms that illegal substances do to your body immediately after using them and what long-term effects come with it as well. Students should be shown real life examples of citizens who have lived their lives influenced by drugs and examples of successful people who have chose a

In 1999, fatal heroin over doses accounted for 1,960 deaths in the United States. In 2014, the toll went up to 10,574 fatal over doses. 2,414 of them were women and 8,160 of them were men ("Overdose Death Rates", 2015). 10,574 women and men. They were someone's mother and father, wife and husband, daughter and son, sister and brother. Addiction is ugly. Addiction is fatal. Addiction is real. Sometimes, no matter how much a person loves their family, they love their drug more and sobriety is not an option. While all other efforts to control the war on drugs are clearly failing, the United States needs to take another route of harm reduction with supervised injection facilities. Supervised injection facilities should be implemented throughout the United States because they reduce fatal overdoses, offer treatment and counselling, and have decreased the amount of public injections.

Bruce Brandler is a man who lost his son to heroin. Brandler says in an article by the Los Angeles Times, “I want to evaporate the myth that heroin addicts are just homeless derelicts, this epidemic hit’s everyone… I think my situation exemplifies that.”. I think what Brandler meant by this is many people have a certain image in their minds when they think about heroin addicts. This image is often wrong simply because heroin addicts are now the people right in front of us. When society expects all addicts to fit one description it often overlooks those that need

Today, people face with many risks, including drug abuse, violence, and HIV/ AIDS. The risks associates with heroin dependence, such as HIV and viral hepatitis, and the social costs due to associated crime and poverty exceed those of most other drugs of abuse (Brown, 2004). Drug addiction is a complex illness, which characterized by intense, and at time, uncontrollable drug craving, along with compulsive drug seeking and use that persist even in the face of devastating consequences. As of any aspect of life that is difficult to approach, recovery from drug addiction can be extremely challenging. This daunting task, which may sometime

It is clear that heroin usage is on the rise and will continue on this same path until the discussion widens to people of all walks of life. Heroin is impacting the entire nation, and has become such a critical issue that it has even been addressed in the recent presidential debates. Both candidates showcase an active interest in finding effective solutions to the problem and vow to make drug prevention part of their long-term political

Heroin use, abuse and addiction has been a major issue in our society. Considered a worldwide social problem, heroin abuse has been on the rise and as of late has reached epidemic proportions. Locally, the city of Erie and neighboring counties have also been affected by this wide-ranging drug trend. Heroin abuse brings violent crime, economically compulsive and systemic violent crime to a community, along with homelessness, as well as diseases, such as HIV and Hepatitis C. Another problem impossible for the compassionate and humanitarians to ignore is the amount of deaths and struggles those addicted to heroin are experiencing. Because of these chronic social issues that are not being resolved well enough through treatments such as Methadone and Narcotics Anonymous, alternative treatments should be explored and could be incorporated into treatment plans for those addicted to heroin.

Heroin, as an illicit drug, is very powerful. What a lot of people do not know is that prescription drugs, such as Oxycodone and Vicodin, can be more powerful and even more addictive than their opiate brother. Pharmaceuticals can be so addictive because they, unlike heroin itself, are legal and easy to acquire. However, they often lead to the use of heroin because heroin is incredibly inexpensive when compared to prescriptions. To me, this is an interesting topic because of the prevalence heroin has in our society today. I have witnessed it in my family and understand the impact it can have. Heroin is an incredibly hard drug to be addicted to because of the power it has

Heroin has ravaged the lives of millions of Americans in the United States and its prevalence is only growing. In states such as Kentucky and Ohio, the amount of heroin overdoses and deaths are now reaching epidemic levels. (Second Ohio) With heroin having such a devastating effect on families, users, and those involved, one would expect every individual to know of its adverse effects. However, even with all the media attention heroin stories have received, many are still unaware of its lethalness.

The drug is a part of the highly addictive opioid family, which are used to make painkillers needed by many Americans. The issue is that the many Americans who have used painkillers, whether prescribed or taken illegally, are forty times more likely to try heroin (“Today’s Heroin Epidemic”). The epidemic is hard to control because it effects everyone. Not one gender, race or economic level is considered safe from the abuse of this substance. The government has been attempting to end the high levels of abuse in America since the late sixties, but old methods proved costly and ineffective. The transitioning of viewing heroin addiction as a crime to mental health has reaped some benefits. Facilities now a days have made break throughs in assuring better futures for addicts by proving them with proper treatment and arming them with correct knowledge of how to combat their disease. Heroin has sparked an important discussion in society involving media, race, sex and economic status, and the epidemic forced the federal government to act accordingly, which allowed communities to properly react and try to lower addiction. Though the rise of heroin use will most likely continue, the epidemic has to eventually come to an end; whether the government makes a final push to eliminate drug use completely or police enforcement cuts down on dealers, the epidemic eventually

One major issue the United States has been struggling with and will continue to struggle with for a long time is the use of illegal drugs, specifically heroin. The problem with this isn?t just that it?s illegal in all 50 states, but it is cheap, dangerous, and highly addictive. The price of heroin is about the same as a fast food meal, making it simple for almost anyone to get ahold of this drug. ?There are only 3 main outcomes that heroin addiction can produce in the end: incarceration, mental hospitals, or death? (Side Effects of Heroin). This just shows that using heroin can put both the user and the people around them in danger. Many long-term users often become dependent on heroin, but with the right help people would

Heroin use and overdose related deaths have increased considerably in the United States in recent years (Jones, Logan, Gladden, & Bohm, 2015). The results of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health [NSDUH] (2014), showed in the year 2013, approximately 517,000 Americans abused heroin, which was almost a 150 percent increase since 2007 (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA], 2014). According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse [NIDA] (2014), in the year 2011, 4.2 million people who were twelve years of age or older said they used heroin at least once in their lifetime. Furthermore, data from NSDUH showed approximately 460 people, twelve years of age or older, used heroin each day in 2013 (Lipari and Hughes, 2015). An even more frightening statistic is death rates doubled for people who were twelve years of age or older as a result of heroin overdose in the years 2010 through 2012 (Hedegaard, Chen, and Warner, 2015).