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Heroin Drug Analysis

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Heroin was once a low-profile drug, addicts were strictly impoverished, or they were uneducated merely following in their addicted parents footsteps. However, heroin trends have changed once wholesome people are now addicts. Today you find the former valedictorian of your graduating class,the loving father of your childhood best friend, or worse your own mother falling into the terrible trend. Addicts now are from all social classes, races, education levels, and professions. Heroin is so abundant that entire towns are swallowed by this monster, forcing good hard-working people to transform into homeless, dope fiends. This epidemic shatters the past image of heroin addicts. In 2013, one hundred people a day died of heroin overdoses:today the …show more content…

Rising overdose rates, younger kids trying it, rehabs being too packed to help new addicts, and prisons becoming detox centers instead of actual prison are a few of the ways people not common to the drug hear about it. Society hears new problems, but no solutions. Upon my realization the solution became clear. The solution is to treat addicts like they have a medical problem, not just like junkies. Addiction can be fixed with proper medical help, not just by simply throwing addicts in prison.Upon researching this topic, I discovered a controversial approach to heroin, in the Netherlands. This program was put in place in the 1990s when heroin was at the same epidemic levels The United States is currently facing (Roes). Patients involved in this program are supplied with lab-synthesized heroin three times a day at allotted times. Patients in this program are given more than just a guaranteed high, officials help them with finding housing, receiving welfare, and so on(Roes). The Netherlands destroys the mindset of just seeing addicts, to them they are “patients” with a critical disease(Roes). Health care provider De ridder best asserts this about the program,“Sometimes they come in because cops get them. Not to throw them in jail, but to help them. Arresting somebody ten times for drug abuse is pointless,” this shows how the Netherlands officials are more concerned with addicts well being than just keeping them off the streets.In correlation to this program the Netherlands have setup methadone buses in high abuse areas to help with withdrawals, and needle exchanges programs helped curb this epidemic. The overall benefits are quite substantial. Addicts currently in the Netherlands are all over 40 and rapidly decreasing over the years. Alike, heroin is one of the most feared drugs in the Netherlands, Young adult addicts are no existent;however, in the US most heroin addicts are aged between 18-25 years old (American Society of

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