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The Portrait Of A Heroin Addict Essay

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INTRODUCTION
The portrait of a heroin addict. Images emerge of a homeless junkie huddled in the corner of a subway seat at 3:00am feening for his next hit. Or the drug addict laid out on a New York City bench, just skin and bones, with syringes littering the ground below. What probably does not come to mind is a picture of the perky cheerleader rooting her team on to victory at a Friday night football game, nor does a vision of the mother of three living in the suburbs with her husband working for a Fortune 500 company in her Executive position. However, these are some of the real people who are falling victim to the temptation of heroin on a daily basis. Heroin deaths are surging amongst suburban whites and the impact of the drug has taken a devastating turn. The heroin epidemic in the United States is entering a new stage in the war on drugs.

THE HISTORY OF HEROIN
Men and women have been using substances that promote psychotropic effects throughout history. These substances are used for a number of reasons including recreational pleasure, to obtain euphoric physical states, stress relief from every day pressures and to seek enlightenment through a suggested altered state of consciousness. The earliest written history of this is found in the writings of the Sumerian tribe, who told of the opium poppy, dating back to 3300 B.C. The Sumerians are a tribe who are believed to have migrated from Persia, which is now Iran. The civilization is one of farmers who grew

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