...Heroin Addiction Psyc 305 B-03 June 15, 2015 Abstract: This paper will serve to provide information about heroin addiction in our society. Heroin addiction is an epidemic problem in the United States and is growing every year. Factors such as genetics and environmental factors will be discussed as they relate to heroin addicts. Trends with prescription pain medication and their effects on heroin use will be discussed. This paper will also highlight the prevalence of heroin in the United States. Heroin affects different groups of people in all walks of life. Treatment for heroin will be discussed in the latter portion of this paper. This will highlight different options to fit specific needs. Addiction: a physical dependency on a substance (Doweiko, 2015), a chronic brain disease that causes compulsive substance use despite harmful consequences, (Addiction, 2015). There is no universally accepted way to define addiction. It seems that it is easier to qualify behavior as an addiction than it is to define the word itself. For the purpose of this paper we will use the four general categories of the DSM-5 to help identify and understand heroin addiction. This paper will serve to provide information about heroin addiction’s possible causes, prevalence and treatment. What causes heroin addiction? The causes of heroin addiction are not clear. As with most drugs it is thought that the user is trying to feel better or self-medicate...
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...Baltimore: A Community in Crisis Since the 19th century, the illicit drug, heroin, has been a part of American society. When heroin was first discovered it was thought to be a wonder drug because of the euphoric feeling a person is said to feel after using it. However, once the debilitating effects of this highly addictive drug was realized the anti-drug law, the Harrison Narcotics Act, was enacted that restricted its use to medicinal purposes only. In 1920, heroin was banned altogether through the Dangerous Drug Act (Habal, 2011). Heroin for the most part was thought to have gone underground until the Vietnam War. In 1971, two congressmen returned from visiting U. S. servicemen serving in Vietnam with an alarming revelation that “15 percent of U.S. servicemen in Vietnam… were actively addicted to heroin” (Spiegel, 2012, para. 3). The idea that American servicemen were addicted to such a horrible drug disgusted much of the American public. “It was thought to be the most addictive substance ever produced, a narcotic so powerful that once addiction claimed you, it was nearly impossible to escape” (Spiegel, 2012, para. 4). President Richard Nixon took swift action by creating, The Special Action Office of Drug Abuse Prevention which concentrated primarily on prevention and rehabilitation. In the late 70s and early 80s the use of heroin reached its peak when it seemed to take a backseat to the reappearance of cocaine and the subsequent crack epidemic that overwhelmed much...
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...Heroin Abuse: Reaching to the Suburban Youth The best driving force to get informed and motivated about a certain topic is a personal experience and my motivation came when one of my best friends passed away from a heroin overdose. Almost exactly a year ago, this friend of mine passed away from a heroin overdose and none of his close friends or family even knew the problem had escalated so greatly. It had all started with a pill addiction to xanax that slowly grew more severe but with a few interventions and a couple of trips to rehab, most of us thought that he was doing well and had kicked the habit. Little did we know that he had kicked the xanax habit only to graduate to something as intense as heroin. The frightening thing about this drug is that my friend was a small, upper class, Jewish boy from the suburbs of St. Louis and would not typically be the image you think of when a person might think of a heroin addict. He was the furthest thing from an underprivileged, poor, inner city adult. But addict hew was, and it is still somewhat of a mystery to those who were closest to him as to how he was able to access his drugs. For every person that believes they know the true meaning of the word “addiction,” there is another person right beside them to argue a different point of view. In this day and age, one would think that doctors or scientists or psychologists would have narrowed it down to a universal description but this is not the case. There are many different...
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...of Methadone Treatment on Opiate and Heroin Dependency Since the early times, opiates, heroin, and other drugs have been used in providing analgesia as well as substitutes to reach a place of euphoria. Originally, as Yurgelum-Todd et al (2009) has noted, derived from the opium poppy, heroin has been used as an alternative to morphine in dealing with addiction (Yurgelum-Todd, p. 175, 2009). Unfortunately, over the years it has consistently become prevalent that heroin has more negative aspects than anything; heroin is highly addictive, resulting in consequences such as overdoses, infections, violence and crime, deficits in memory, learning, and attention. The need to relieve pain by use of heroin and other drugs, though, results in opioid dependence, estimated to affect more than one million persons in North America alone (Oviedo-Joekes, p. 778, 2009). To relieve opiate dependence, researchers experimented with an opiate-agonist called methadone; the standard opioid-susbstitution treatment, to help reduce withdrawals and other negative consequences surrounding the use of drugs like heroin by producing a phenomenon called the “blocking-dose”, which blocks opiate receptors (Oviedo-Joekes, p. 778, 2009). Methadone was, in fact, the “first opiate agonist used in the pharmacotherapy of heroin addiction. Methadone is the best studied drug, but also the most controversial”(Maremmani, p. 7, 2008). This paper will discuss different research methods used to analyze the effects...
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...patients and treat it as the first priority. It took 8 years for that standard to be revoked. In 2010, the country began to see a shift in its patterns of opioid abuse. In response to the growing misuse and addiction crisis that OxyContin had left in its wake, its manufacturers came up with a way to make the pills nearly uncrushable, rendering them useless for snorting or injecting. In response to this, synthetic opioid abusers turned to other opioids, most commonly heroin, to feed their addiction. In 2016, the director of the CDC, Dr. Tom Frieden wrote, “We know of no other medication routinely used for a nonfatal condition that kills patients so frequently.” (Moghe, 2016) Today, it’s estimated that 21-29% of the patients that are prescribed opioids for chronic pain misuse their medication, and of that number, an estimated 4-6% will turn to heroin because of its cost effectiveness and availability. 8-12% of patients prescribed opioids develop and opioid use disorder. A staggering 80% of people who use heroin misused prescription opioids first. Maine’s Story: How Did We Get Here? Maine’s hard-working laborers provided the perfect demand for prescription opioids in the state. During the pain management push of the 90s, doctors were writing opioid prescriptions at the drop of a hat. OxyContin was supposed to be a wonder drug, able to manage pain to the point of increased movement and productivity in those who took it as prescribed. The problem, as we all know, is that...
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...As one prescription drug abuser in his early 20’s explained: Once people (pill brokers) know you take them prescription opioids, they’ll start calling you. “Oh, it’s this time of the month.” Then they wait for that person to get their script. They know exactly in their head what day the script’s getting ready to come so they got the patterns down. Pill brokers and dealers reported congregating in open air drug markets typically strip mall and pharmacy parking lots, and outside methadone clinics to buy, sell, and trade prescription drugs. These markets were reported to involve a variety of transactions, including the purchase of prescription drugs for cash, as well as trades for crack and heroin. Pill brokers also reported the purchase of used fentanyl patches from nurses who have stolen them from pain patients or from disposal containers in hospitals. Some individuals frequenting the drug markets also barter their oxycodone for other opioids or benzodiazepines, typically alprazolam. Doctor Shopping focus group participants indicated that even in a small state like Delaware, doctor shopping appeared to be fairly easy. The vast majority of abusers reported obtaining medications through doctor shopping, and most reported frequenting at least four physicians in order to obtain sufficient amounts of their desired medications. Occasionally clinics and hospital emergency rooms were reported as locations for doctor shopping as well. A heavy user stated: Another focus group member...
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...Heroin Addiction and Treatment Abstract This paper offers a brief explanation of the history of heroin. Describing the origins of heroin, who discovered it and describe the detrimental effects heroin has on an individual. There are several treatment options available for heroin addicts and this paper will look at a few of the ones that have shown the most success. Heroin Addiction and Treatment Introduction: A Brief History of Heroin Heroin comes from the opium poppy. This plant has been used by a number of various civilizations going back to include ancient civilizations. Opium, heroin, and morphine are derived from the poppy. Opium had been used by Drs. in the United States for many years prior to the Civil War. When morphine was discovered Drs. switched to using morphine instead of opium for pain, mainly because the hypodermic needle had been invented and morphine could be injected and pain could be better controlled. Heroin was derived from a chemical process discovered by Felix Hoffman in 1874. Heroin was initially distributed as a pain killer, and cough suppressant by Bayer Company in 1898. Drs. initially thought that heroin could replace morphine because they thought heroin did not possess the addictive qualities of morphine. In fact Drs. used heroin to get their patient’s off morphine. They thought...
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...A Comparison of Methadone and Suboxone in Opioid Treatment Program Julien Nougarou Upper Iowa University Abstract Addiction to opioids is a common problem throughout the world. Maintenance treatments such as Methadone and Suboxone are effective in lessening the desire to consume illicit drugs, but they are not perfect options for drug treatment as each has negative effects, too. In this paper, both the positive and negative effects of the drugs Methadone and Suboxone will be determined and evaluated in order to better ascertain the better treatment. It was concluded that the effectiveness of each treatment can only be determined on a case-by-case basis, as the factors of success are often dependent on the patient receiving the treatment. There are various criticisms for both modes of treatment, but no other means of treating opioid addiction have yet to be found. There are improvements that could be made for both treatments, but regardless of improvements each mode of treatment is risky as there is no miracle cure for opioid addiction. Introduction In 1864, The New York State Inebriate Asylum, the first in the country, opened in Binghamton, NY. It was the first of a growing network of inebriate asylums that treated alcoholism and addiction to drugs such as opium, morphine, cocaine, chloral, ether, and chloroform. Today, when talking about opioid addiction and dependency treatments, two controversial but efficient treatments stand out from the lot: Methadone and Suboxone...
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...making it a national issue that many people are attempting to attack. Prescription opioid use is increasing in public health, creating an epidemic that is growing rapidly. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse: opiates, depressants, and stimulants are the three drug classifications most commonly abused by Americans. A multitude of research on the subject has concluded that there is more than a single solution to the problem, such as taking immediate action as well as creating prevention strategies. I decided to do additional research on this topic since it plays a huge part in my career as well as personal life. Being a substance abuse counselor in the criminal justice field, I experience first-hand the effects of prescription opioid abuse. A large number of client’s participating in the TASC (Treatment Alternatives for Safer Communities) are dealing with prescription opioid abuse due to an injury or surgical procedure. On April 25, 2015, my first cousin died from a heroin overdose at the age of 23. After a football injury, he was prescribed Hydrocodone and became addicted. Since the pills are too expensive, he began using heroin and his battle ended 5 years later. In 2009, 16 million Americans age 12 and older reported taking a prescription pain reliever, tranquilizer, stimulant or sedative for nonmedical purpose according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration Web Site. In 2010, the NIDA-funded Monitoring the Future Study showed that 2.7% of 8th graders...
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...the overdose-reversing drug Naloxone, the Surgeon General is acknowledging the fact that in many parts of the country use of Naloxone by first responders has become as ubiquitous as providing CPR. When considering pseudoscience, particularly C.P Snow’s focus the “gulf of mutual incomprehension” between the humanities and sciences, there is no better current example than how pharmaceutical marketing lead to the misinformation about opioid addictiveness, overprescription opioids, and...
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...In this paper I am going to argue why Marijuana has medical usage and the benefits of having it legalized for that purpose. Does marijuana have any medicinal use? Quite a few say yes marijuana does have medical use and yes it should be made legal for that purpose. The people that think this way are correct marijuana does have medical use. It has been used as medicine since 2727 B.C. were the first recorded use of cannabis as medicine in Chinese pharmacopoeia but not only was it used in China but every part of the world. Humankind has used cannabis for a wide variety of health problems for not just centuries but over a millennium. But there are still people who deny that marijuana had medical use. These people who are wrong marijuana does have medical use. They also have their own scientific studies...
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...International Security Research Paper Nate Henneman During the mid 90s, Afghanistan surpassed Myanmar, as the leading producer and exporter of opium in the world. Their rise has been attributed to the increased violence and anti-government organizations giving drug lords the ability to operate without much interference from the government. Afghanistan has extremely fertile lands, which makes growing poppy plants (opium is extracted from the poppy seed) very profitable considering the total opium market value is around $4 billion per year. The lack of governmental intervention coupled with the well suited growing conditions make Afghanistan along with other countries in the Middle East, the perfect manufacturing and shipping or distribution plant of opium in the world. Even though opium is used highly in western medicine when making morphine-based drugs to help relieve pain, opium in the drug trade most often comes in the illegal form of heroin; one of the most abused and highly addictive drugs used recreationally across the globe. Prolonged use causes dependency and constipation, along with the increased risk of contracting blood borne diseases such as HIV or hepatitis. Death by overdose is very prominent as well, around 100,000 per year die from heroin overdose, and around 30,000 of those deaths occur in Russia. “Afghan drug production is an international rather than a local or regional threat,” Russia’s drug control chief, Viktor Ivanov has said. The United States,...
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...are to reduce illicit drug use, manufacturing, and trafficking, drug-related crime and violence, and drug-related health consequences” (The White House, 2006). Each year the policies are updated to reflect the current trends within the illegal world of drug trafficking. Drug use in the last decade has nearly doubled. The Bush Administration updated the policies in February 2006 to achieve the primary goal of reducing drug use within the United States. The President’s strategy focuses on three principal elements: stopping drug use before it starts, healing drug users, and disrupting the market for illicit drugs. This paper will discuss the specifics, origins and goal of the third strategy, “Disrupting the Markets”. The writer will also discuss resources and costs involved for effective implementation and maintenance. Finally, this paper will provide information on the effects of drug use on the community, ethical implications and suggestions to improve this particular strategy. The policy of “Disrupting the Markets” attempts to stop drug trade by attacking the economics of the system. This element of the Bush Administration strategy provides details on progress being done domestically and internationally to “disrupt the availability of illicit drugs, through source country efforts, interdiction programs, and investigative operations. We are attacking market vulnerabilities in the illegal drug trade and applying pressure to reduce profits and raise the risks...
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...Legalization of Cannabis Research Paper Cannabis has been around for thousands of years and served different cultures in various ways. Throughout the last decade Marijuana has been adapted to fit our lifestyles. Marijuana is now used for medicinal purposes and has the potential to be the plant that saves America. Unless the risks of marijuana overpower the many great benefits then we should not make a plant that comes from the earth illegal. Instead we should look at it from a logical point of view and use it to boost America out from the ditch it is in. Cannabis Sativa or Marijuana dates all the way back to 2900 BC. Emperor Fu His believed that marijuana was a popular medicine that contained both yin and yang. The Chinese used it to sooth the stressed people to make them peaceful. The Jamestown settlers brought cannabis to America in 1611. In the Jamestown civilization it was illegal to not grow a hemp plant because there was so many benefits it provided for the society. The Jamestown people created hemp fibers and they exported it to other civilizations, hemp was one of their biggest exports during the colonial period. Even our first president George Washington grew hemp for 30 years at his plantation in Mount Vernon. He records in his diary that he separated the male and female plants, and also produced a hemp plant with a high THC content (Procon.org). Recreational Marijuana use came into play back in the “olden” days when alcohol was scares. Marijuana is the most...
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...IHR 1 Methadone: The Introduction of Harm Reduction IHR 2 As I began thinking about what topic covers a multitude of citizens and is a significant issue and problem that affects the justice system here in the United States, almost automatically I was drawn to my deep passion for recovery based solutions to drug and alcohol addictions. I have found my experiences in recovery, to repeatedly be surrounded with the pain of those whom have suffered and are still suffering from effects of their addiction(s). Many addictions have grown out of the same medications that when used properly, provided the relief sought to provide pain maintenance and therefore relief of such pain. I firmly believe that without some form of spiritual maintenance, recovery- both physical and mentally- is an endless merry go-round of medical doctors and drug dealers. As a recovering addict/alcoholic myself, my daily walk exposes me to the ever increasing ideology, of not only addicts, but the public at large, to the thought process of finding relief for every day undesirable thought and undesirable actions (according to some), to be the quick fix, which historically has been called the “magic pill” or “magical elixir” cure. In the near future, I plan to be a recovery counselor and placement specialist. I hope to be able to provide some experience based direction, on the path of recovery, to those whom still suffer. I felt the need to understand not only the options being provided for said addictions...
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