Heroin: History, Societal Impact and Next Steps
Heroin is processed from the poppy plant. The Opium poppy had been cultivated and marketed for thousands of years. It was used first in religious ceremonies and for early medicinal purposes but at that time it was not synthesized as heroin. Heroin was originally produced in a chemist lab back in 1874 by C. R. Alder Wright.1 At that time the production of heroin was in response to the demand for the need of a non-addictive pain killer. The substance was produced but sat dormant for a number of years. It was not until several years later that heroin was marketed by the German company, Bayer. An employee, Heinrich Dreser, suggested the substance would be a valuable ingredient in cough medicines,
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There is a need for education not only within schools for signs and warning of early addiction but also to prepare children with the ability to make appropriate choices. Due to cuts in many school budgets programs related to wellness, drug education and addiction have been eliminated. There are recommendations that these programs be put back in to regular school curriculums at even earlier grade levels. There are case studies that show that children are exposed to prescription drug use by the age of twelve.6 While there is a need to educate children, parents and teachers there is a need within the medical community as well. Doctors need to be aware of pain management and issues with prescribing opioids from the onset. The piece that is missing according to the summary of findings from the Task Force on Heroin Addiction is the addictive piece. Doctors and nurses receive training and education related to pain management but rarely receive information or training related to addiction issues. There is movement for doctors that have the ability to prescribe opiates to take courses associated with addiction in order for them to be licensed or maintain their …show more content…
The user is typically not aware of the Fentanyl being added to the drug. The user then consumes the customary amount of their dosage and then dies from an over dose. If they are lucky there will be an immediate intervention and a person who has access to Naloxone or Narcan can reverse the affects. Naloxone is a substance that is injected and blocks the effects of the heroin or other opiates.9 The local police as well as staff at the local department of social services carry Narcan. Even as recent as within the last week individuals that were found over dosed in the local department of social services were administered Narcan with success in reversing the effects of the heroin
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.
Heroin itself can be taken in three ways, injecting a solution of heroin and water into your vein, snorting it, or inhaling it. A person will receive maximum effects if they inject it. Basically heroin makes people feel as if they are in a state of Euphoria for a small amount of time, and cause people to be drowsy warm and content, which kind of detaches you from pain.
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).
Heroin addiction is one of the leading killers of adolescents and adults in the United States. In recent years, addiction has skyrocketed, and “the rate of heroin-related overdose deaths increased by 286 percent between 2002 and 2013.” In 2002, “100 people per 100,000 were addicted to heroin, and that number has doubled by 2013” (The National Institute on Drug Abuse 2013). The most affected populations include low income males, adolescents, and those who have a family history of addiction, due to their increased susceptibility and crime-ridden environment. While it may seem as though heroin addiction is “just another drug problem” in the U.S., it is actually a problem of major public health importance because there are numerous physical, economic, and social risks associated with heroin dependence. Heroin dependence in the United States accounts for brain damage, increased homelessness, crime, and incarceration rates, as well as economic decline.
The opioid and heroin addiction is affecting the upcoming generation drastically. There are babies being born with an addiction to alcohol, opiates, heroin, alcohol, or multiple different things. These drug addictions at a young age take a toll on the children 's bodies, they shake violently and cry uncontrollably. 1 in 10 children born in a hospital are addicted to one of the above mentioned drugs. The babies aren 't the only youth affected, there are also teens/young adults that who are addicted to these drugs. This
“People often share their unused pain relievers, unaware of the dangers of nonmedical opioid use. Most adolescents who misuse prescription pain relievers are given them for free by a friend or relative.” (ASAM) People are unaware of the danger that opioid addiction can cause and it only takes one time to get addicted. More people should be educated about this crisis. “In 2015, an estimated 21,000 adolescents had used heroin in the past year, and an estimated 5,000 were current heroin users. Additionally, an estimated 6,000 adolescents had heroin a heroin use disorder in 2014.” (ASAM) What excuse is there for adolescents to even come into contact with heroin. The public needs to be more informed of the drugs and what they can do to destroy someone’s
This is not much of a surprise since the rate of teen and children opioid users are on a continuing rise in the United States (Mills para 1). Per Pannoni’s article “High Schools get Frank with Teens on Heroin Epidemic”, the rate has nearly doubled since 2002 (Pannoni para 1). Alcabes use his personal high school narrative to show that it is not uncommon for students to use opioids/psychoactive medications to help them throughout the day. The normal acceptable usage is shown in Alcabes himself while abusive use is shown in his classmate who raids his parents medicine cabinets every morning before school. This opioid epidemic is a problem for children and adults. According to Curtis Mills in his article “opioid Epidemic takes a toll on U.S. Children, teens”, most poisoning among teens result from accidental overdose but some have been a suicide attempts and that teens use opioids to get high like any other recreational drugs they use (Mills para. 6). Alcabes tries to explains what addiction is as well as explains the multiply other issues that come along with
The media portrays opioid abuse as a new dilemma, but it actually extends as far back as 1898 when Bayer Co. produced heroin, a drug made from opium, and commercialized it to be a “wonder drug” for those in need of pain relief (Moghe 2016). Today, heroin is known to be a dangerous, illegal, and addictive drug. Before doctors
Heroin Addiction in Australia. There are many fact of this devastated addiction which lead a person to die or rather hope to. Heroin is an opiate drug which belongs to morphine, and morphine itself obtained from the opium poppy plant and this plant called papaver somniferum which means a hypnotic plant, also this plant grows in many countries such as Afghanistan, India, Australia, and China, additionally in 1803 heroin first discovered, and the reason why it has discovered is to help patients to kill the pain, so its name was a painkiller. (Live Science 2015) In addition, according to National Institute in Drug Abuse (2014) heroin is a highly chronic addictive drug that contains morphine which is from a plant called opium poppy that belongs
Drug dependency, drowsiness, confusion, constipation, depressed respiration and nausea have been causes of an opioids intake, but many people consider that just another excuse to up the intake of the medicine (NIH). Aside from those physical set-backs there are psychological mental effects too, which include the inability to make immediate decisions, control behavior or react in a stressful moment. This type of mental errors could cause a person to have an overdose or not realize the deadly effects of the tablets. The same effects of the intake of heroin in the body, the mind seems to separate from the body causing to view the world from far away where anything harmful cannot happened. Even while trying to avoid the hectic side-effects of withdrawal from opioids, or heroin, the doctor could prescribe a slow drug taper pills to combat the unwanted uncertainties, or the patient can stop cold-turkey and find other methods to deal with the persistent pain. To this present day there are various medical surgical procedures, low-dose meditation, trying acupuncture or ancient, home remedies are available to the entire world with the world wide
According to Hanson, Venturelli, and Fleckenstein (2015) opioids are described as the “nation’s fastest-growing drug problem” (p. 276) and are also known as narcotics. Opioids originated from the opium poppy and have been chemically altered throughout the years in order to create more potent drugs such as hydrocodone (e.g., Vicodin), oxycodone (e.g., OxyContin, Percocet), morphine (e.g., Kadian, Avinza), and codeine. Known for analgesic properties, opioids are seen to be the most commonly used drugs among clinicians. Although these narcotics are legally prescribed to patients, there are many, even adolescents, that not only abuse prescribed narcotics, but also abuse another form of opioid, heroin. In adolescence, the structures of the brain are not fully developed and are therefore more likely to acquire severe consequences for abusing opioids. There are many ways to use and administer narcotics, but misusing opioids may lead to signs and symptoms of drug abuse, annoying side effects, dependency, abuse, and in worse case situations, death.
The heroin epidemic’s impact on this nation has demanded action to be taken. Currently, the United States is placing an emphasis on stopping doctors from unnecessarily prescribing opiates such as Vicodin, Percocet, and OxyContin to patients because it often leads to heroin addiction. Furthermore, the country is beginning to focus its efforts on “harm reduction,” which is “a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with [heroin] use” (SouthComm Business Media LLC, 2015, para 12). One form of harm reduction is giving users clean needles at no cost. Offering help to addicts when they come for free needles will increase their chances of recovery, and clean needles prevent the spread of deadly diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C. SouthComm Business Media LLC (2015) further notes, “…it costs only a dime for a needle versus $90,000 for three months of hepatitis c treatments” (para 14). Another form of harm reduction being used to combat heroin is the use of Naloxone, which reverses the effects of an overdose. Many police officers, medical personnel, family members of heroin addicts, and heroin addicts themselves carry Naloxone with them in case of an overdose. Finally, Suboxone treatment is considered as one of the more effective ways to reduce harm. Suboxone is a drug that blocks the user from getting high and makes it to where they do not crave the drug (SouthComm Business Media LLC, 2015, para 24). Stopping the
Heroin is an opiate, and is a product that is extracted from the Poppy plant and synthesized from morphine. It is a white-to-dark brown powder or tar-like substance and is highly addictive because its qualities become lesser as use progresses, causing the receiver to need more of the drug to achieve the result of the pain relief. Heroin
Starting in Afganhistan's opium farms, heroin made it big, being one of the most used (but equally illegal) drugs out there, costing up to more than £20,000 per kilo. However, the legalness of the drug is no concern for the farmers, dealers or sellers. They grow poppies which produce the opium needed as a key ingrediant for heroin. They grow the ingrediants to make money, this is because opium sells for more than wheat, carrots or potatoes do.
Opium is a natural product from a poppy plant called the Papaver somniferum. This plant is an annual plant. After the plant blooms, the petals fall off the seed pod. If the seed pod is cut, a white sap oozes from the pod. Once the sap is exposed to air, it turns dark brown. This darkened sap is called opium. Opium can be smoked or chewed to obtain a spectrum of pharmacological effects. Cultivation of the poppy plant can be traced back to early years of human civilization. Opium use was well known in ancient Mesopotamia by the Sumerians around 3000 B.C. Opium cultivation spread to the ancient Greeks, Persians, and Egyptians. Opium was introduced to China and East Asia in the sixth or seventh century A.D. through trade.