Heroin : Drugs And Drugs

There are no “safe heroin injection sites.” The only “safe” approach to heroin is to not take it. For addicts, the humane public health response is to help them get and stay sober, or at the very least, opioid replacement therapy in sustained treatment. Any approach without these goals is cruel and dehumanizing- not healing, but perpetuating harm. (Walter 2)

Since the 19th century, the illicit drug, heroin, has been a part of American society. When heroin was first discovered it was thought to be a wonder drug because of the euphoric feeling a person is said to feel after using it. However, once the debilitating effects of this highly addictive drug was realized the anti-drug law, the Harrison Narcotics Act, was enacted that restricted its use to medicinal purposes only. In 1920, heroin was banned altogether through the Dangerous Drug Act (Habal, 2011). Heroin for the most part was thought to have gone underground until the Vietnam War.

Shockingly, the state of Vermont has become one of the heroin capitals in the United States (Tron, 2014). According to Vermont Governor Pete Shumlin, roughly two millions dollars worth of heroin comes into the state every week (Tron, 2014). Nearly 80 percent of Vermont’s inmate population is behind bars for drug related crimes (Tron, 2014). Since major interstate roads flow through Vermont, such as Boston and New York City, it makes it easy for drug traffickers to move heroin into Vermont (Tron, 2014). In 2013, the number of heroin related deaths doubled in Vermont, and the amount of individuals getting treated for opiate abuse increased by 770 percent between 2000 and 2014 (Tron, 2014). The drug heroin has taken the lives of many Vermonters,

Since the early times, opiates, heroin, and other drugs have been used in providing analgesia as well as substitutes to reach a place of euphoria. Originally, as Yurgelum-Todd et al (2009) has noted, derived from the opium poppy, heroin has been used as an alternative to morphine in dealing with addiction (Yurgelum-Todd, p. 175, 2009). Unfortunately, over the years it has consistently become prevalent that heroin has more negative aspects than anything; heroin is highly addictive, resulting in consequences such as overdoses, infections, violence and crime, deficits in memory, learning, and

“...from that moment on I didn't take heroin because I wanted to, I took it because I needed to.” Heroin is a highly addictive, illegal drug that comes from the opium plant. In just the year 2014, 12,000 people in the United States died from heroin overdoses. The York County community has made a big effort to help fight the heroin epidemic, but despite these efforts the county is clearly still struggling with over 60 overdose deaths last year. Some of the efforts York County is making include the use of NARCAN, drug drop boxes, the Good Samaritan law and treatment courts.

Heroin is a drug most children grow up learning about as being one of the worst things you can do. Being young, a child could never imagine doing something to them that is harmful. Yet here we are, at home, right in Northeast Ohio with the biggest heroin epidemic in history. Heroin is essentially a pain blocker. It turns into morphine when it enters the brain. Is this why it is so popular, or is it because this drug is becoming cheaper and cheaper? The answer is both. Heroin offers users a cheap, quick fix to temporarily numb themselves. With its growing popularity, this drug needs to be stopped. The Heroin and Opioid Epidemic Northeast Ohio Community Action Plan is currently a working draft that will

The drug was first created in 1898 as a medicine to relieve pain to those who were suffering from illnesses. However, it was eventually pulled from the market due to its severe and unwanted side effects. Heroin is made from a milky substance found inside the poppy plant. Pure heroin is as much as eight times stronger than that of morphine (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2017).

In the United States alone, there are 1.2 million people who are using heroin. 600,000 of those users are addicted to heroin and use 150 to 250 milligrams on a daily basis. 700,000 Americans are needing treatment but are not receiving it. Heroin is more deadly than car accidents. From 2001 to 2014 there was a five-hundred percent increase in the total number of deaths. Although injection of the drug has declined, smoking has increased because the cost of clean needles has gone up and to newer users it is easier. While the popularity of Heroin in the United States of America has grown, Florida and California have the most heroin seized by law enforcement. Diacetylmorphine was first synthesized in 1874 by C. R. Wright. an English chemist working at St. Mary 's Hospital Medical School in London. He had been experimenting with combining morphine with various acids and sent it off to be analyzed.

Many people may not realize this but multiple states, including Michigan, are facing an epidemic. It is not a disease, however, it is a heroin epidemic. In a country where addictive opioid pain-killer prescriptions are handed out like candy, it not surprising heroin, also known as smack or thunder, has become a serious problem. The current heroin epidemic Michigan is facing, as are dozens of other states, has spiraled out of control in recent years. In Michigan, some of the areas hit hardest by this drug are in the southern portion of the state, like Wayne, Oakland, and Monroe Counties. The connection between painkillers and heroin may not be clear, but this is because both are classified as opioid drugs, and therefore cause many of the same positive and negative side effects. As a country, we are currently the largest consumer of opioids in the world; almost the entire world supply of hydrocodone (the opioid in Vicodin) and 81% of the world’s oxycodone (in Percocet and OxyContin) is used by the United States (Volkow). Along with consuming most of the world’s most common opioids, we have gone from 76 million of these prescriptions in 1991 to 207 million in 2013 – constantly increasing except for a small decrease starting in 2012 (Volkow). This widespread use has caused numerous consequences from increasing emergency room visits – for both painkillers and heroin – to sky-rocking overdose cases all over the country (Volkow). Michigan, unfortunately, currently has one of the

Heroin was initially created by Charles Wright in 1874 to combat Morphine addiction amongst Civil War soldiers. The commercial production of heroin began in 1898, by the Bayer Pharmaceutical Company, and their “sales pitch” persuaded people that Heroin was a “safe, non-addictive” substitute for morphine, therefore, gaining popularity amongst healthcare professionals and their morphine addicted patients. As a result, numerous

Heroin, a powerful narcotic, acts upon the brain as a painkiller, increasing physical addiction and ongoing emotional dependence (Schaffer Library of…). Heroin has many challenging and highly risky effects on the user, all the more hazardous if overdosing is present. This extremely dangerous drug, heroin, will never cease being used, but may cease the existence of an individual.

As the medical community began to pull back on casually dispensing heroin, people began to question the medical

Heroin and commonly known by its street names of H, smack, horse, brown, black, tar, and others, is an opioid analgesic originally synthesized by C.R. Alder Wright in 1874 by adding two acetyl groups to the molecule morphine, which is found naturally in the opium poppy. It is the 3,6-diacetyl ester of morphine. Heroin itself is an inactive drug, but when inserted into the body, it converts into morphine.

Over the years, heroin has increased to become an epidemic. People of various social standings have started using heroin because the pain medications they are used to getting have become too expensive. This is a global crisis and it grows more and more with each passing day. As people continue to use heroin the effect’s they once had will start to diminish, with that happening the user will seek a more powerful solution. Heroin without mixing other substances is a bad idea, but with the way this is going people are mixing it and they are making that bad idea even worse.

In our society Heroin, has become an overpowering epidemic around the world, this drug is extremely addictive and has been illegal in the United States for many years. Although many individuals seem to discover a way to obtain this very lethal drug. Even though, heroin is highly addictive and used by choice by an individual with a drug addiction; the number of deaths from Heroin is escalating daily, to the point where more than 26 overdoses in one day maybe even more. This epidemic needs to be put to a halt. Despite the fact the focus was on prescription addiction increase and overdoses, and how to eliminate the problem, while consequently the outcome of this change has made a difference, but now our society needs to focus on the Heroin outbreak.