The Center Of Disease Control And Prevention States, “From

The use of opioids and other drugs continues to gradually increase in the United State. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of overdose deaths involving opioids has quadrupled since 1999” (CDC website). Individuals are abusing prescription opioids such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone. Prescriptions opioids that are supposed to be used as pain relievers, cough suppressants and for withdrawal symptoms are being use by individuals in order to feel relaxed or for the overwhelming effect of euphoria. These types of drugs are to be taken orally, but people are snorting, smoking, and injecting them in order to get a better high. I have personal encounters with opioid drugs and opioid abuser on a regular

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.

Opioid drugs are some of the most widespread pain medications that we have in this country; indeed, the fact is that opioid analgesic prescriptions have increased by over 300% from 1999 to 2010 (Mitch 989). Consequently, the number of deaths from overdose increased from 4000 to 16,600 a year in the same time frame (Mitch 989). This fact becomes even more frightening when you think about today; the annual number of fatal drug overdoses in the Unites States now surpasses that of motor vehicle deaths (Alexander 1865). Even worse, overdose deaths caused by opioids specifically exceed those attributed to both cocaine and heroin combined (Alexander 1865).

Analysis: Opioids are a class of drug that are medically used as very effective painkillers, like fentanyl and morphine, however, they are highly addictive and produce a feeling of euphoria (“Opioids”). This combination leads do a lot of abuse and dependency, where people take more than prescribed in order to feel better. People start off taking the opioid painkillers in order to not feel pain as prescribed by their doctors. Then, they end up getting addicted to them. There are also illicit opioids, such as heroin, that are also highly addictive and also lead to dependency and death (“Opioids”). These illicit versions are taken for recreational reasons, and are also often mixed with other drugs. The combination of taking an unregulated drug in conjunction with other drugs leads to a lot of overdoses.

Many people have developed an addiction due to an injury and which were prescribed painkillers to manage and treat the pain. Prolonged use leads to dependence and once a person is addicted, increasing amounts of drugs are required to prevent feeling of withdrawal. Addiction to painkillers often leads to harder drugs such as heroin due to the black market drug being cheaper. Prescription drugs remain a far deadlier problem and more people abuse prescription medication than cocaine, methamphetamine heroin, MDMA and PCP combined. Drug abuse is ending too many lives too soon and destroying families and communities.

Heroin overdoses, have become a bigger issue over the last few years. Heroin is made from morphine, which itself is a very powerful and addictive drug. In an article on nlm.nih.gov they found that around .6% of people between the ages of 15-64 use heroin. About 23 percent of people who use the drug become dependent on it. Overdoses frequently involve suppression

Heroin addiction does not discriminate it reaches across all social classes, age groups and genders. For instance, in Louisiana alone the rate of heroin overdose rose from 5 in 2008 to 110 in 2012. Heroin users often start off as patients who become addicted to prescription drugs for pain. The strict procedures that surround prescription drugs have caused many individuals to turn to Heroin which can be purchased cheaply on the street. Production of heroin in Afghanistan has actually increased since the United States entered the war on terror in that

The over use of opioid has been one of the major public health problem in the United States (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2018). Opioids include prescription medications that are used to treat pain symptoms which includes codeine, morphine, methadone, hydrocodone, and etc., as well as illegal drugs such as heroin and illicit potent on opioids such as fentanyl analogs (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2018). The opioid overdose could happen due to many factors such as when a patient deliberately misuses a prescription, or misuse heroin (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2018). Opioid overdose could happen due to the prescriber miscalculated the opioid dose or when

Additionally, opioid medications are the primary cause for overdose deaths in the United States. According to the Weekly Standard, “In 2014, the most recent year for which we have measurements, 47,055 Americans died from drug-induced deaths, with almost 29,000 dying from opioids…” (2), a figure that includes illicit synthetics, heroin, and prescriptions. From 2015 to 2016 in Maryland, fentanyl deaths rose by 268 percent and heroin deaths by sixty eight percent. Fentanyl has contributed to this dramatic increase in OD deaths because of its potency and lethality. It only takes two milligrams of fentanyl to kill a human. In fact, a single kilogram of fentanyl is capable of killing 500,000 people (Murray, Blake, and Walters 2). More than 30,000 opioid deaths occurred for the first time ever in 2015, which is 5,000 more than in 2014. Since the 1990s, heroin deaths had not surpassed prescription opioids (oxycodone and hydrocodone) until now. In 2007, gun homicides outnumbered heroin deaths at a rate of five to one, however at the height of the epidemic, now heroin OD deaths outnumber gun homicides (Ingraham 2). It is obvious that these unprecedented levels of drug deaths are derived from the opioid epidemic and need immediate attention.

The effects of opioid overdose are traumatic, devastating, and preventable. It is estimated that there are 128,000 people addicted to opioids in New Jersey (Stirling, 2015). Furthermore, many of those addicted to the drug heroin became so after being prescribed narcotic pain killers. This is because when the prescription runs out the addiction is still in place. Those addicted can find pills being sold illegally but they can cost up to 30 dollars a pill. Heroin, costing only 5 dollars a bag according to law enforcement officials, is a much better deal (Stirling, 2015).

The widespread availability of heroin and relatively low price have caused a heroin epidemic. Unfortunately, this problem affects big cities and small towns across the country. While some people try heroin after developing a painkiller addiction, other people become addicted after experimenting with the drug.

Heroin the most addictive flower that hooks users for life that brings the destruction of life. The poppy flower that grasp human mentality by the knees holding them enslave to the euphoria state that the mind has a craving wanting more. This poppy flower has addicts wanting more to have another fix of the poppy flower juice that gives another dose of heroin high. Heroin is easy to search for when looking in the direction for a euphoria journey. As Anthony Brooks (NPR) said “Heroin is the number one dope that could be sold at a cheaper price.” The people that can’t afford their medications through doctor’s orders or a single over-the-medication they look toward the cheapest price of a drug that may take away the pain for a few three hours of pain free. The hook of heroin’s’ grip never lets one go making the mind crave for more like chocolate the sweetness that gives the careless feeling of becoming less than human but a junkie and a dope fiend. The documentation of the Heroin Crisis documentary that America is the dope fiend paradise where addicts can get a fix anywhere without being notice of heroin use and heroin being transported from Mexico, South America, Asia, Laos, Vietnam and Afghanistan the number one supplier. The dope that brings current users wanting more for the craving of heroin and creating new users to make a profit through the heroin addiction that leaves victims overdosed to

I will be evaluating the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) One & Only Campaign. This educational public health campaign has been led by the CDC in partnership with the Safe Injection Practices Coalition (SIPC) (CDC, 2015).

Heroin is a very addictive drug, and when taken creates pleasurable feelings and leaves its mark as a positive reinforcer when interacting with the reward system in the brain. The heroin then produces morphine that binds with the reward pathway, and then a larger amount of dopamine is released in the brain. The most important reward system in the body involves the production of dopamine. Dopamine is an organic chemical in the brain that calms the body and makes the body feel good. This is how addiction beings because individuals take these drugs that improve their dopamine levels. These increased dopamine levels relax the body and make the body feel good. This feeling becomes addicting and the use craves to have that feeling again and

Heroin use and overdose related deaths have increased considerably in the United States in recent years (Jones, Logan, Gladden, & Bohm, 2015). The results of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health [NSDUH] (2014), showed in the year 2013, approximately 517,000 Americans abused heroin, which was almost a 150 percent increase since 2007 (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA], 2014). According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse [NIDA] (2014), in the year 2011, 4.2 million people who were twelve years of age or older said they used heroin at least once in their lifetime. Furthermore, data from NSDUH showed approximately 460 people, twelve years of age or older, used heroin each day in 2013 (Lipari and Hughes, 2015). An even more frightening statistic is death rates doubled for people who were twelve years of age or older as a result of heroin overdose in the years 2010 through 2012 (Hedegaard, Chen, and Warner, 2015).