Use Of Methadone As A Harm Reduction Therapy

The United States of America has had a war against drugs since the 37th president, Richard Nixon, declared more crimination on drug abuse in June 1971. From mid-1990s to today, a crisis challenges the health department and government on opioid regulation, as millions of Americans die due overdoses of painkillers. Opioids are substances used as painkillers, and they range from prescription medications to the illegal drug, heroin. Abusing these substances can cause a dependency or addiction, which can lead to overdoses, physical damages, emotional trauma, and death. To ease the crisis, physicians are asked to depend on alternatives to pain management. Law enforcement cracks down on profiting drug-dealers and heroin abusers. People are warned against misusing opioids. The controversy begins for those who suffer from chronic pain, because they depend on opioids. There’s so a correlation to the 1980s cocaine epidemic, and people are upset over racial discrimination. Nonetheless, the best way to avoid this crisis is to recover the people at risk, reduce inappropriate opioid description, and have a proper response.

Harm reductions recognizes an individual’s willingness to make a change in their life, there is a wide range that these individuals may be along, from not thinking about change, to contemplating change, to taking action, to maintaining change and the other way around. The method of harm reduction first begins with focusing on what stage the individual is on with their drug use. As earlier stated the active participation of individuals who use drugs is at the heart of harm reduction. These individuals are the best source of information in terms of their own drug use and are determined with the help of other service agencies to determine the best form of intervention. There have been many success stories from having injection sites as a form

“Harm reduction is based on the premise that people are responsible for their behaviour, that they maker personal choices that affect their health and well-being, and that they can make safer and better decisions if given useful and honest information” (Mathre, 2002, p. 106). Harm reduction recognizes people’s unhealthy choices while also attempting to reduce the harmful effects that come from these unhealthy behaviours (Marlatt, 1998 as cited in Brown, Luna, Ramirez, Vail, and Williams, 2005). Using a harm reduction approach has a positive effect on drug users, as it helps to reduce the negative consequences that come from using drugs. Although harm reduction aims to reduce the harm from illegal drug using, it is viewed as

Currently in Ontario there are approximately 30,000 people, between the ages of 15 and 49, using illicit opioids on a regular basis. (Hart 2007) Opioid use is a costly and dangerous social problem and is the fastest growing drug problem in the country. The good news is that there is a treatment that has been proven by research and evidence to be effective. Methadone Maintenance Treatment (MMT) is a long term treatment program used to treat opioid dependence and addiction.(Source) MMT works by preventing withdrawal symptoms in opiate users. It also prevents the euphoria the user is seeking from other opiates. MMT uses the drug of Methadone to do this. Methadone is a synthetic opioid commonly used to treat opioid dependence.(Source)

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.

In conclusion, methadone clinics and needle exchange programs have many stigmas linked to them due to the biases that have been associated with these programs in the past. The programs are trying to create ways to encourage more drug users to use the programs available especially the needle exchange program for those who inject

America has a major problem with opioid addicts, and many facilities are helping the addicts by providing safer options to taking the drugs their bodies crave. Methadone clinics are places where people addicted to opioids can receive medicine-based therapy. Opioid use, drugs such as heroin, morphine, and prescribed painkillers, has increased in the US with all age groups and incomes. People become addicted to these drugs when they are prescribed, recreationally used with other addicts, or they are born addicted. Many health institutions are addressing this issue with an estimated 2.1 million people in the United States suffering from substance use disorders related to prescription opioid pain relievers in 2012 and an estimated 467,000 addicted

Not only is the user reducing their risks of overdose with heroin and methadone, they are also reducing their use of other substances. This allows the user to become more of a functioning member of society, due to their decreased activities with other substances.

While trying to fight drug addiction, most say that using the well-known drug methadone, helps fight the existing addiction- take drugs to stop taking drugs? When someone is fighting an addiction, one may decide to try and take action to cure their addiction by seeking help. Seeking help may consist of going through a treatment process of taking the well-known drug Methadone. This drug is known to help people fight their addiction to pain pills, heroin, crack-cocaine, and many others, or does it? The Methadone treatment is also known to start addiction. Everyone has their own opinion of the treatment process. I have conducted much research on this and will provide you with my found information, and also my own opinion. In the end,

During the last seven months whilst working at a men’s shelter (Cornerstone Community Association, in the heart of Oshawa, which some may say is the drug capital of the Durham Region) many of the shelter guests (men who stay in the shelter) have disclosed being on the methadone maintenance program, stating as a result of being addicted to opioid drugs. I have chosen to write about this psychoactive drug because I want to explore, become more knowledgeable and more confident when talking about this complex drug.

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 main focus of our clinic would be to reduce or completely eliminate their opioid usage by putting the patient on methadone.

This paper will discuss the principles and position of harm reduction. It will also examine the public perception of the user, which has created an ineffective philosophy. Most importantly, my paper seeks to recognize the harm of harm reduction. This discussion will highlight the lack of hope it creates in the user. Harm reduction needs to be addressed so that a long-term solution for the user can be implemented, not just a quick fix Band-Aid solution. If caregivers, counselors and the general public do not hold more of an abstinence position on recovery they will eventually do users a disservice. I will touch on needle exchange, safe injection sites, wet

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.