Pros And Cons Of Drug Addiction

Many people do not understand why or how other people become addicted to drugs. Drug addiction is a complex chronic disease that causes impairment with the mind to express emotion, engage into physical activities and simply being one’s self. In fact, through scientific research, people understand more about how drugs work in the brain more than ever, and they also know that drug addiction can be successfully treated with some help from those who want change in the death rates amongst drug addict Americans. No one will ever truly understand why a person performs such deadly behaviors, but this is their way of crying out for help. It is time to take a stand and help those in need of escape from drugs and

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.

Since the creation of drugs, its abuse and addiction became a taboo. As technology advanced into the 21st century, an impetus in civilization created the allure of drugs, which became propagated and popularized into modern society. Consequently, its Achilles heel created a social epidemic which threatened their innocence. Therefore, the conundrum of this phenomenon caused challenges for the addict, society, and treatment providers. Nonetheless, as problem arises, solutions await its discovery; and, as new and innovated ideas emerged, there are precipitate and modern challenges when getting individuals into addiction treatment.

Maia Szalavitz, author of Unbroken Brain, points out in an article about our finger-pointing mentality on drug abuse, “Addiction is one of the most serious health problems we face today, and as of 2010, more than 23 million people have an addiction to drugs, and according to the National Institutes of Health, these addictions contribute to more than 100,000 deaths per year.” Drug abuse is a major problem in the United States and throughout the world as more and more people become addicted every day. When you hear the words drug addict you think of desensitizing terms, like “junkie” or “crack head,” and when you see someone panhandling for money on the street, passed out, or swaying in a doorway you likely wonder, “why don’t they just get

There is no question about it – addiction is a problem. It’s talked about constantly on the news, social media, and even in our own homes. Considering the statistics, that’s not surprising; as of 2012, an estimated 22 million people over the age of 12 are addicted to drugs or alcohol (Friedman 387). The criminalization of the disease of addiction overloads our legal system, disrupts the lives of many families, and limits the success of those who could otherwise be productive members of society. The good news is that there are many different forms of treatment available, so recovery is possible for everyone. We need to

PBS’s documentary entitled, Chasing Heroin, highlights the detrimental effects that drug addiction has on individuals in America. Throughout the film, the stories of specific Americans who have experience battling drug addiction presented. Moreover, the film introduces some solutions that have been proposed to combat the drug epidemic that has spread all over the nation. While some methods have seen some success stories, relapse rates are still at fifty percent. As drug addictions have taken over and even ended the lives of people from all classes, backgrounds, and age groups, the country needs to take serious measures in order to combat the issues associated with drug usage.

Today, in society, there has been a huge rise in the amount of deaths due to heroin overdose and addiction. Heroin and opiate addiction is something that needs to be recognized within our society in order to help protect one another. In this essay, I will explore the different methods of treatment, health insurance issues, and how the addicts affect the society. Information involving treatment for heroin and opiate addicts needs to be more prevalent in society because we do not hear much about how to treat addicts until something goes wrong. With knowing that there are these issues in society, information about treatment and help needs to be addressed more affectively in order to prevent death and other health issues from occurring. Insurance is also a major factor that goes along with treatment, and I believe that treatment and other rehabilitation programs should partially be covered by health insurance in order for the whole process to be affordable. All of the educational parts of these issues go untouched because it is not talked about in many societies; in a news article by Dan Dearth he discusses the concerns of many police officers within the area of Washington County, MD. The police officers believe that Heroin is the up and coming drug that is going to affect many citizens, and there is no education about how Heroin affects an individuals body and mental stability. Therefore, the educational part of this situation needs to be introduced more within the society

When people picture a drug addict, many individuals may see the same picture of a dirty, disgusting, maybe even homeless, individual that has no place in this world. While addicts like this do exist, the wide spread of the current opiate addiction crisis has completely changed the worlds perception. The word opiate is a wide spread term for a group of narcotics that cause sedation, respiratory failure, and if used excessively, can result in death. However, their high potential for addiction has resulted in what some parts of the world have declared as a public health crisis. With the over-prescribing of painkillers and the increased availability and lowered price of heroin on the streets, opiate addictions and overdoses have increased dramatically;

In 2010 there were 23.5 million people in the United States addicted to drugs or alcohol, but only 11 percent of them received treatment for their addiction, leaving the remaining 89 percent of addicts not getting help with their addiction (“New Data Show Millions” 2010). This is clearly a problem that the government has to address and fight. There are really two ways of going about fighting drug addiction, the traditional approach of fighting the supply of drugs and being hard on crime or try to rehabilitate people using rehabilitation. Each of these tactics is usually more focused on by one of the major parties/administrations of republicans and democrats, and by either president Trump or Obama. Either of these strategies may work on its

The research discussed in this paper explores the impact of heroin on the population as well as its impact on the methods healthcare workers use to treat the individuals who are struggling with this addiction. Three articles were analyzed to determine the influence of this issue on society as well as how nurse led rehabilitation can be utilized to improve client outcomes and reduce relapse. This epidemic is quickly becoming one of the leading causes of death in the United States as well as the rest of the world, and as a result new interventions and ideas must be taken into consideration to help improve the outcomes of treatment. Heroin use in the general population has increased from 373,000 in 2007 to 914,000 in 2014 and drug

Drug addiction in this country takes a toll on every single aspect of productivity, healthcare costs and on the criminal justice system. The addict themselves suffer from impaired judgment, poor anger management and violent behavior which could all lead to crimes committed and being locked up (Drugabuse.org,2017). Treatment for the users offers an alternative to imprisonment. Drugabuse.org insists that treatment offers the best alternative for interrupting the drug use and criminal behavior patterns of the offenders (2014). Additionally, untreated drug offenders “are more likely to relapse into drug use and criminal behavior, jeopardizing public health and safety and taxing the criminal justice system.”

Drug use in America is one of the major issues we face and the problem has skyrocketed over the past three decades. Heroin and painkiller addictions exceed all other countries. It is important that we address some of the causes that lead to the abuse, how to treat the abuse, and how to prevent the distribution of illegal prescription drugs.

Drug and alcohol addiction is a very serious and widespread problem in America, and across the globe. Drug addiction is a constant craving, seeking, and using of a substance, despite the negative consequences it may have on the addict or those around them. When drug use becomes more frequent, it is considered drug abuse. Once an individual’s drug abuse is can no longer be controlled, and they are using the drug to get through everyday life, it beomes an addiction. A person on drugs has an altered way of thinking, behaving, and perceiving. There are treatment facilities all over the world dedicated to help those suffering with drug addictions. All

It’s easy to lose track of the chaos that happens in the world on a day to day basis when your main priority is deciding what to eat for lunch tomorrow, or even dreading your next shift; yet we can turn on the news and hear about the most recent overdose and not even blink an eye. The blatant disregard for drug addicts today is at an ultimate high. In the past two years alone, more people have died from opiate addiction than they have in the entire Vietnam War. The fact that drug users are seen as lower class members of society as only aided in the increase of addiction and death, killing more Americans than HIV/AIDS did at its peak. Though the epidemic did not occur overnight, it has recently become one of America’s biggest health confrontations. Although there is no absolute solution, in order to decelerate the prevailing wave of usage and overdose/death, decriminalization in correlation to government funded programs could give ease to the definition of the word “epidemic”.

It is common knowledge that America has the world’s largest population of prisoners, and in 2008, a study was completed by the Pew Charitable Trusts which indicated that half of the inmates in jail and prison are serving time for nonviolent drug charges (http://www.pewstates.org/news-room/press-releases/new-pew-study-finds-36-percent-increase-in-prison-time-served-85899394970). Since the “War on Drugs” approach about forty years ago, the criminalization of the addict has done very little to address the problem of substance abuse in society. While there is no one clear cause of substance abuse, there have been patterns identified in substance abusers, that may be the underlying factors that lead to the addiction. Some of these factors include mental health and biology.