Methadone

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.

Addiction is has been around for a long time. The fear of people becoming addicted to certain substances has lead to policies changes. However, there has not been a major federal law passed that dealt with addiction in over forty years. In 2016, President Obama signed a law that covered all the major points of addiction and recovery. This topic this important to me because some of my loved ones are addicts. I may also have clients that are addicts.This paper will take a look at that law. First, we have to define a few key terms.

For most of our history, drug use has been legal for recreational, religious, and medicinal purposes. During the 19th century, opium, morphine, and cocaine could be purchased over-the-counter to treat medical conditions such as menstrual cramps, teething pain, coughs, depression, and even addiction (Hellerman). On December 17, 1914, the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act was introduced which heavily restricted the use of narcotics, and was based on racial fears and discrimination. The drafters of the bill stated that “negroes under the influence of drugs were murdering whites, degenerate Mexicans were smoking marijuana, and “chinamen” were seducing white women with drugs” (Huggins). Regardless of the restrictions placed on narcotics, the 20th century followed the

Heroin, a white powder, was created in 1874, and was sold as a safe substitute for morphine. However, it was discovered that heroin produced a quick dependency in people. Heroin and other opiates were made illegal in 1920 as part of the Dangerous Drugs Act. Still today, however, Heroin is illegally manufactured and imported, largely from the Indian sub-continent.

In 1906, the Pure Food and Drug Act, that was years in the making was finally passed under President Roosevelt. This law reflected a sea change in medicine-- an unprecedented wave of regulations. No longer could drug companies have a secret formula and hide potentially toxic substances such as heroin under their patent. The law required drug companies to specify the ingredients of medications on the label. It also regulated the purity and dosage of substances. Not by mere coincidence was the law passed only about five years after Bayer, a German based drug company began selling the morphine derivative, heroin. Thought to be a safe, non-habit forming alternative to morphine, heroin quickly became the “cure-all drug” that was used to treat

Methadone Maintenance Therapy (MMT) is used with opioid dependency and is an opioid replacement therapy. MMT typically replaces heroin with Methadone which is a cleaner substance than heroin, and is used to avoid withdrawal and allow the user to function normally within society. MMT has been around for the last 50 years, and research studies have been conducted to address the benefits and the complications associated with this replacement therapy. This paper will examine some of the advantages and disadvantages associated with MMT and reflect on personal ideals in accordance with MMT.

Methadone misuse leads to flash visual evoked potentials in newborns. In the article by McGlone, Hamilton, McCulloch, Boulton, Bradnam, Weaver, & Mactier (2013), they conduct a study about mothers who abuse drugs and are prescribe methadone and end up misusing the methadone. The infants of the women end up being born with abnormal flash VEPs. The researchers concluded that the abnormality is due in part to the prescribed methadone and not the other drugs that these women were abusing. A control group was implemented to compare the flash VEP with healthy, drug free infants. It is also concluded that methadone binds to ocular as well as to brain tissues, which explains why it has an adverse effect on the infants visual and neurologic development.

Not very may people know exactly what methadone is, what it is used for, and why it is necessary. Addiction is an illness, and there are many substances that enable addiction. People who are addicted to opioids are just like anyone else who has an illness, they are sick. People who are ill need medicine, and methadone is a medicine that is used to treat people who are sick with opioid addiction. Methadone has been used for 35 years in the treatment of opioid addiction and has helped millions of recovering addicts (Methadone and You 4:1) Methadone is a effective way to help opiate and heroin addicts control their addiction, return to normal life and become a contributing person of society,

The Harrison Narcotics Act, go in 1914, was the United States ' first government tranquilize arrangement. The demonstration confined the fabricate and offer of pot, cocaine, heroin, and morphine. The demonstration was forcefully implemented. Doctors, who were recommending medications to addicts on "upkeep" projects were brutally rebuffed. In the vicinity of 1915 and 1938, more than 5,000 doctors were indicted and fined or imprisoned. In 1919, The Supreme Court ruled against the support of addicts as a honest to goodness type of treatment in the United States. America 's first government tranquilize arrangement focused on doctors and drug specialists.

We have recently seen a change in the way that drug abuse and addiction are viewed. Considering addiction to be a chronic and relapsing disease is a new concept for the public, policymakers, and even health care professionals (Leshner 46). With this in mind, we can recognize that corrections without the benefit of treatment will fall short in correcting drug-seeking and addictive behaviors (Leshner 46). These, of course, are also the behaviors that most often cause an individual to return to crimes that promote their drug use upon leaving jail or prison (Leshner

The Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914 was the first of many laws due to the laissez-faire attitude toward drug use in the United States. Brecher 1972 states (as cited in Powell & Redford, 2016) society’s view on drugs was not problematic until the end of the nineteenth century. After the Civil War, a widespread epidemic of drugs swept across the nation, which fuels the drug wars of today (Powell & Brecher, 2016).

For at least two centuries different morphine and opium derived tinctures were sold by various pharmaceutical companies. It wasn’t until 1898 when a morphine derived cough suppressant named heroin was created that a problem with such opiates arose. Within a short time heroin's addictive nature affected around three hundred thousand people in the U.S. Soon opiate based medications would be banned unless for medical use. In 1916 two German Scientist synthesized what they thought was a non-addictive replacement for narcotics like heroin. This drug would be known as oxycodone. Oxycodone is an odorless, white, crystalline powder derived from the opium alkaloid, thebaine. Its molecular formula is C18 H21NO4. Although it was brought to America in 1939, it wasn’t until 1950 that it became a popular drug for use. This happened when it was combined with aspirin into Percodan which quickly became a highly abused drug. However, people would still frequently look toward oxycodone for the treatment of chronic pain. 1966 was a big year for Purdue Pharma when they released OxyContin, a pure oxycodone tablet with a time release base which would hopefully prevent abuse. This drug soon earned the nickname “Hillbilly Heroin” and a mass breakout of overdoses and arrests

The history of substance abuse is full of irony. The poppy, a beautiful flower, is the source of opium, a raw pain-killing substance regularly cultivated and harvested in the East, where it was widely used. Tragically, Europe and America imported the drug and adopted its unregulated use. Though legal, the opium dens of the early 19th century certainly oppressed the lives of the poor, taking what little money they had and offering a dangerous environment in which to dream drug induced dreams.

According to the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and the transtheoretical model of change, “for most people with substance abuse problems, recurrence of substance use is the rule not the exception” (Enhancing Motivation for Change, 1999, p. xvii). Relapse can and most likely will occur in recovery, and should be recognized as well as anticipated by substance abuse recovery counselors. The significant challenges to counselors are bringing a client successfully and securely through a relapse and eventually preventing relapse from occurring at all. For many, helping a client find faith in a higher power is an essential piece of the puzzle for overcoming addiction.

Starting in 1914 the U.S introduced the first probation acts that prohibited the consumption of Opiates and Cocaine with the Harrison Narcotics act of 1914 Later this act was amended to include marijuana. This Act was the first use of federal criminal law in the United Sates to attempt to deal with the nonmedical use of drugs (wisegeek). The war of drugs started primarily in the 1971 when Nixon declared the war on drugs. He dramatically increased the size and presence of federal drug control agencies (Drug Policy). With the first major organized drug imports from Columbia from the Black Tuna Gang based in Miami, Florida Columbia was quickly growing into a drug superpower able to feed America’s growing addictions.