Rutland Case Study

In August of 2016, twenty-six people lives changed, and may never be fixed. In only one week these twenty-six people overdosed on heroin, which three of them died (Police). This is the unseen epidemic because of how unaware people are. People are blind to the prevalence in our community, rising rate of deaths, and seizures, lastly that Narcan will become counterproductive. This unseen epidemic is growing faster than anyone knows, and has to be addressed head on.

Attention Getter: Imagine 60,000 people in one city, all dealing with the same problem, addiction. According to an article written by Carter M. Yang for ABC news on March 14th of this year, there are 60, 000 people in Baltimore alone that are addicted to illicit drugs. These numbers are disheartening and unfortunate. I can relate to every one of these people struggling with substance abuse, because I am an addict. A program called Narcotics Anonymous has

There have been several news coverages on TV and social network about drug overdose of different cases recently and they have risen people’s concern about the problems of drug abuse national-wide. The drug abuse and opioid epidemic is not a new problem to the American society, actually it has been a serious problem for many years. So what is the situation of drug epidemic now, and how can we find effective ways to deal with this problem? A few writers who ponder this question are Nora D. Volkow, Dan Nolan and Chris Amico.

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

Per Reporter: Donna (James lawyer) contacted CPS 9/18/17 with concerns of physical abuse towards Preston. According to Donna, James (victim’s father) went to pick up Preston 9/16/17. During that time Denise told James that she hit Preston so hard in his face it made her hand hurt. There were no marks or bruising noticed. It is unknown of when the incident happened or what caused the incident. James was recently court ordered to receive unsupervised visitations. Kayla (victim’s mother) has supervised visitation with Preston. The allegations were not discussed with Denise.

A huge epidemic that is obtaining a lot of attention from Congress and medical professionals across the county is the spiking heroin overdoses that are rising at alarming rates. (Krisberg, 2014). My question to everyone that is researching this topic is this:

Depending on the source, some would term the heroin and opioid problem in the United States a crisis, while others would use the word epidemic. Regardless of which expression is more accurate, the situation regarding heroin and opioid use, abuse and dependence has ignited national, if not global concern. History shows us that pervasive dilemmas have a tendency to cultivate a variety of intervention and the heroin and opioid crisis is no different.

This literature review will focus mainly on the drug use of heroin, the scary numbers behind the drug and the sudden rise of overdosing on the drug across the United States. Issues that will be discussed are what is Heroin, what’s in Heroin that makes it addicting, how it can increase the users risk of contracting other life threatening diseases and where it’s use and abuse are most popular across the United states and we will take a look at multiple studies that show examples of our new drug problem in the United States. While we looked at how homicide rates have dropped while in class, the flip side to that is that the amount of drug usage has risen.

Whether the opioids were prescribed to the user or if they were taken recreationally by buying it off the street, opioid addiction and deaths has risen dramatically. In Boston alone from 2012 to 2015 opioid related deaths have more than doubled; slowly climbing from 64 to 136 deaths.1 Fortunately, these numbers have not gone unnoticed. Government grants and agencies as well as local programs have been working hard to reduce this epidemic. Boston is a very big city filled with vast diversity. There are beautiful gardens in the Commons, amazing food in the North end, exciting plays and ballets in the Art district and historical buildings and stories that date back to the beginning of America. Boston is the home of 35 colleges and universities

“...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.

Many articles I have read say that both law enforcement agencies and state officials suspect that the rise of heroin abuse is due to many reasons. One theory is that because local and federal drug agencies have been shutting down illegal prescription pill mills, and that drug abusers that were hooked on prescription opiates are seeking out cheaper alternatives such as heroin (Kounang, 2015). “Heroin seems to be the drug of choice right now for a number of reasons. Users can inject it, they can snort it and it’s very, very inexpensive and easy to obtain. We’re are seeing that it is cheaper in Providence than it is here in Massachusetts.” stated Ramos when I asked him why it’s so popular. In my opinion, one thing is clear. Both national and local authorities are making an effort to combat this growing issue. They are not turning a blind eye to this epidemic.

People view the crime rate of a city to have an insight of the safety that is enforce in the area. Collierville has a low status of crime that is committed in their town. It is rare to see an incident that is reported from Collierville which is a robbery or murderous activity have been perpetrated. Collierville has set up regulations to put cameras throughout

Naperville is known as the most safest city in America, but there has always been a reoccurring problem that has been ignored in Naperville for a long time, heroin. Heroin is a drug with a high addiction liability and is commonly used as a recreational drug. Most of the heroin in Naperville comes from Mexico, which has seen its drug industry increase by 600 percent in the last decade. DuPage county’s heroin related deaths increased up to 53% in

The NYPD is one of the finest law enforcements when it comes to containing drugs, except one, heroin. The business of drugs exponentially grows to new heights every year. Around the early 70’s, heroine was being brought over to the united states at very high rates. New York City was a famous shipping ground for heroine, which made times tough for the law enforcement.

I found this article both fascinating and disappointing. I can’t help but make the tenuous connection that perhaps the recent legalization of recreational marijuana in states like Oregon and Colorado could be contributing to the rise in drug use throughout the country, and thereby influencing the continuation of rural America’s heroin epidemic. Based off of news articles I had read previously, I didn’t realize that the heroin epidemic was not only dying off, but rapidly increasing. For such a modern and wealthy country, the United States’ drug use continues to shock me.