Opioid and heroin usage is a major issue all over The United States, and it’s an even bigger one in our home of York, Pennsylvania. The United States only accounts for 5% of the world’s population, yet we make up 75% of the world’s prescription drug consumers. In addition to this, Pennsylvania is the state with the third highest amount of heroin users in the country. As far as our county goes, York has the 4th highest amount of heroin related deaths. The heroin epidemic in the United States, and specifically York County was caused a multitude of reasons, such as the fact that heroin is cheaper than prescription drugs and most people who try heroin aren’t aware of the risks. Heroin is often used by people who first used prescription drugs. People will become addicted to painkillers because there isn’t much of a stigma. After all, they’re legal. Little to the users know that some of the prescription drugs they’re using are strong enough to treat a cancer …show more content…
They don’t know that every three days, a person dies of a heroin overdose. They don’t know that heroin is almost always cut with other substances, whether the substance be as harmless as sugar, or as scary as fentanyl. All they know is that it’s cheap and gives them a high like no other. Ultimately, no one thinks that heroin could ruin their life, or even end their life. If everyone was aware of the consequences, the epidemic wouldn’t be nearly as bad. Heroin is a problem that won’t go away anytime soon, but if we work, we can try to eliminate it from our community. We must try to inform everyone of the dangers of heroin so they know to avoid them. We also need to work on keeping prescription drugs in a safe place, and if they aren’t being used, we need to dispose of them as soon as possible at our local police station. To conclude, the heroin epidemic is caused by the lack of information on heroin and the price of heroin compared to prescription
As elaborated by Katelyn Newman, in her article ¨A Personal Look at a National Problem¨, the opioid epidemic in America is both severing family relationships and resulting in widespread suffering. In the aftermath of the historic increase of prescription drug abuse in the United States, as well as the opioid epidemic being deemed a national emergency by President Donald Trump, Newman brings to light the true impacts the crisis is having on the United States. By generalizing the population, expressing her words in a solemn tone, and through alternating between narrating and informing, Katelyn Newman calls all americans to be conscience of the opioid epidemic, and the effects it is having on the relationships between people within the United States.
Nationally, for the first time in 2015, deaths from heroin overdoses alone surpassed deaths in the United States of America by firearm homicides (New Jersey). In 2015 New Jersey lost nearly “1,600” people to drug overdoses. On January 10, 2017, Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey gave a heartfelt speech to a group of intellectuals and the to people of New Jersey about the mistreatment of the disease known as addiction and what we can and will do to treat it. Christie uses a clear antithesis to show his message that addiction is a cruel and brutal disease that will stop at nothing to infect everybody (Arco). To make sure his words are burnt into the viewers mind he uses: frequent tone change and practices comforting, but controlling
The “How Bad is the Opioid Epidemic?” is shock people into worrying about the addiction epidemic America is facing. The “Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-Based Guide (Third Edition)” is to let people understand more about addictions and how addictions could be considered as a disease. Even though both resources are about addictions, “How Bad is the Opioid Epidemic?” plays on the human emotion of fear, anger, and disgust; and “Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-Based Guide (Third Edition)” plays on the human emotion of sadness and anticipation. For the most part, “How Bad is the Opioid Epidemic?” by Dan Nolan and Chris Amico and “Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-Based Guide (Third Edition)” by Nora D. Volkow, M.D follows the McCloud’s chapter 7
“ Because they produce euphoria in addition to pain relief, they can be misused. Regular use- even as prescribed by a doctor can lead to dependence ,and when misused, opioid pain relievers can lead to overdose incidents and deaths” (Drugabuse.gov/opioids) Prescribing opioids have more dangers to the human than they do
Underlying Causes: The increase in the sale of opioids is considered to be the root of the opioid crisis, as the drugs have been proven to be highly addictive. An addiction to prescriptive opioids, however, can lead to an addiction to synthetic, illegal opioids, such as heroine or fentanyl, which are less expensive and easier to acquire. In fact, in their journal article, “Associations of nonmedical pain reliever use and initiation of heroin use in the United States” Pradip Muhuri and associates discovered that “the recent (12 months preceding interview) heroin incidence rate was 19 times higher among those who reported prior nonmedical prescription pain reliever (NMPR) use than among those who did not (0.39 vs. 0.02 percent)” (Muhuri et. al). In other words, abusing prescription opioids significantly raises the chances of abusing illicit drugs, such as heroin.
Community Strategies to Address the Opioid Epidemic: A Literature Review Francis Melaragni Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences University Abstract Introduction The impact of opioid drug abuse which includes both misuse of prescribed medication and illegal consumption of heroin and other opioids has become and been declared a public health emergency in Massachusetts and many other states. This problem has also been recognized as an urgent issue at the national level, and has received focus and attention from The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The purpose of this literature review is to assess what tactics and
The use of heroin is drastically growing; many people are dying of overdose or getting killed over the drug. For example, my aunt works in a hospital, she read the report of a 23-year-old her patient that had ate 46 bags of heroin and now was in intensive care. My speech today on heroin will be divided in two parts, the first part of my speech I will be talking about, current problems we will face if we use heroin, the second
(2007) detail their findings regarding the implementation on Skills and Knowledge on Opiate Prevention (SKOOP), a program developed to train individuals to prevent overdoses and provide them with prescriptions for Naloxone. Much like in the research of Bennet, Bell, Tomedi, Hulsey, and Kral (2011), cited above, participant’s for SKOOP were recruited through a needle exchange program. SKOOP differed from Bennet, Bell, Tomedi, Hulsey, and Kral’s (2011) OPP, in that afte participants completed the training, they met with an on-site physician to receive their Naloxone kit and receive referrals for primary care physicians or drug treatment if they were interested. There were several important challenges identified with the implementaton of SKOOP:
From this we can conclude that the statistic of drug usage is way too high and may be the cause of more harmful effects such as overdoses. While alcohol is still a drug and still has the potential of being very dangerous heroin and other street drugs do not seem to be a adequate and safe substitute and is proven to be even more dangerous. When we look at Opioid and other drug use in America compared to other countries we notice that america is one of the leading countries in drug use around the
The use of narcotics in America is on a steady rise, Opioids such as Heroin being the deadliest. It’s categorized as a “Schedule 1,” meaning a high potential for abuse, along with severe psychological and physical dependence. Before the Twentieth Century, Heroin was actually widely available and marketed by Bayer, and Aspirin Company. This deadly substance can be injected, snorted, or smoked.
Opioid Epidemic in the United States The opioid crisis has risen over the years here in America. The addiction to painkillers has caused many drug overdoses across America. According to the Vox," In 2015, more than 52,000 people have died from drug overdoses from linked to opioids such as Percocet, heroin, Oxycontin or even fentanyl. This problem did not become an overnight health crisis, but it has become quickly known in America. Expanding our drug treatment centers across America would provide the support to those who are addicted to drugs.
Opioids Today Undoubtedly, the addictive nature of opioids has generated immense controversy in both the medical community and population of the United States. During the last decade, the increase of people addicted to opioids has grown steadily, among them; you can find ordinary people but celebrities, athletes and soldiers thus charging many lives in their path. Despite this, it was not until after several months of political pressure that the current president of the United States, Donald Trump, declared in the middle of 2017 those opioids are responsible of a health crisis in America. The history of the nation shows that with the passage of time, similar crises have appeared that are now experienced, but that despite this, they have not
There are programs working on treatment for the drugs that are being abused. This article would be used in an argument for my essay by using quotes from the section titled “Treatment News”. This relates to my topic by proving that there are some treatment actions in progress to prevent the opioid epidemic. Drug abuse is a serious problem that does not need to be left alone and untreated.
In this documentary, Joe Rannazzisi, a former DEA deputy assistant administrator blames the drug industry for allowing the opioid crisis to expand and take lives. According to Rannazzisi, the drug industry is aware of their drugs killing people, yet they still sell their drugs to doctors and pharmacies that prescribe drugs to patients who have no need for that drug, causing them to become prone to overdosing. For those who have not seen the documentary, "The Whistleblower", Rannazzisi and other DEA members shine light on the drug industry's link to the opioid crisis, the drug industry's power and Congress's aid to the drug industry. Opioid overdose is a problem in the United States. According to Stat News, there are 100 deaths a day from opioid overdose and drug overdose kills more Americans under the age of 50 than anything else.
The author mentions that “deaths from heroin rose to 8,260 in 2013.” That number has quadrupled since the year 2000. The rise of deaths caused from heroin cannot be ignored. The impact of heroin has spiraled out of