Ponyboy’s cigarette addiction → Ohio drug epidemic
Summary
About 435,000 Americans regularly use heroin, a large increase in the last decade. 28,000 deaths a year are attributed to opiate overdoses, 2,590 of which occur in Ohio. This causes an increase of children in government custody, law enforcement officers carrying naloxone, and overflow in treatment centers. Drug traffickers choose Ohio to avoid violence involved with drug trade in large cities. Clinics over-prescribed very addictive painkillers, but once law enforcement cracked down they became very expensive, giving the cheap drug heroin an advantage. Adam Conkey was prescribed with pain pills twenty years ago, which started him on the road to heroin. Conkey and his girlfriend, Natasha
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From the article about the Ohio drug epidemic, “Once the heroin takes hold, many users say, nothing else matters. They might ignore their children or have them taken from their care by family or Children Services workers. Many addicts end up jobless and homeless, and many manipulate or steal from family members, friends and employers to get drug money.” Just like Ponyboy needs his cigarettes to calm down, heroin controls addict’s lives. In the novel we learn that Pony could lose his passion to his cigarettes, “I pulled his chair over backward and jumped on him, but he had me down in a second. I was kind of short on wind. I’ve got to cut out smoking or I won’t make track next year” (Hinton 112). In this passage, the author shows that Pony’s smoking habit could cost him excellent running abilities. This connects to the article on the Ohio drug epidemic because addictions can also take away your family, home, and money, as shown here, “At the height of her addiction, Troyer spent hundreds of dollars a day on heroin. She lost custody of her children and ended up homeless, sleeping in drug houses and abandoned homes in Franklinton and the Hilltop.” (end quote) In both the lives of Ponyboy and drug addicts in Ohio, their addictions take control over their actions, and could cost them both
On the typical day, over 90 people will die at the hand of opioid abuse in America alone (National). In fact, as of 2014, nearly 2 million Americans were dependent and abusing opioids. The Opioid Crisis has affected America and its citizens in various ways, including health policy, health care, and the life in populous areas. Due to the mass dependence and mortality, the crisis has become an issue that must be resolved in all aspects.
The term addiction can be interpreted in many ways, concering both illegal and legal substances. Not only can one become addicted to a substance, but also activities like gambling, shoplifting, and sex. Prior to considering addiction, one must first understand what constitutes a substance. Levinthal (2002) describes a drug as a chemical substance that changes the functioning of the body when ingested (4). Although illegal drugs may come to mind when hearing this definition, alcohol and tobacco fit under this criteria as well. For the purpose of this essay, controlled and regulated (licit/legal) substances will be focused upon. Alcohol is a regulated substance that can be thought of as a social drug (Levinthal, 2002, p.192) and arguably tobacco
The documentary states that over 27,000 deaths a year are due to overdose from heroin and other opioids. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2015 prescription pain relievers account for 20,101 overdose deaths, and 12,990 overdose deaths are related to heroin (Rudd et al., 2010-2015). The documentary’s investigation gives the history of how the heroin epidemic started, with a great focus on the hospice movement. We are presented with the idea that once someone is addicted to painkillers, the difficulty in obtaining the drug over a long period of time becomes too expensive and too difficult. This often leads people to use heroin. This idea is true as a 2014 survey found that 94% of respondents who were being treated for opioid addiction said they chose to use heroin because prescription opioids were “more expensive and harder to obtain (Cicero et al., 2014).” Four in five heroin users actually started out using prescription painkillers (Johns, 2013). This correlation between heroin and prescription painkiller use supports the idea presented in the documentary that “prescription opiates are heroin prep school.”
Sally Satel, author of “Addiction Doesn’t Discriminate? Wrong,” leads us down a harrowing path of the causes and effects that lead people to addiction. It can be a choice, possibly subconscious, or a condition that leads a person left fighting a lifelong battle they did not intend to sign up for. Mental and emotional health/conditions, personality traits, attitudes, values, behaviors, choices, and perceived rewards are just a few of the supposed causes of becoming an addict.
Almost one hundred years ago, prescription drugs like morphine were available at almost any general store. Women carried bottles of very addictive potent opiate based pain killers in their purse. Many individuals like Edgar Allen Poe died from such addictions. Since that time through various federal, state and local laws, drugs like morphine are now prescription drugs; however, this has not stopped the addiction to opiate based pain killers. Today’s society combats an ever increasing number of very deadly addictive drugs from designer drugs to narcotics to the less potent but equally destructive alcohol and marijuana. With all of these new and old drugs going in and out of vogue with addicts, it appears that the increase of misuse and abuse is founded greater in the prescription opiate based painkillers.
In the United States, opioid addiction rates have majorly increased . Between 2000-2015 more than half a million individuals have died from Opioid overdose, and nearly 5 million people have an opioid dependence which has become a serious problem. The Center for Disease control reports that there are 91 deaths daily due to opioid abuse. Taking opioids for long periods of time and in
How do you define a hero?What is our true definition of a hero? Some people's definition of a hero is the ones in capes,but what if there was three….in leather jacket,Ponyboy,Dally,Johnny are considered heroes because.
The synthetic Opioid OxyContin has become a drug of abuse, following in the steps of other prescription drugs that contain Oxycodone, the active ingredient in OxyContin. The level of abuse and the number of people who have died because of OxyContin abuse are growing. At first many pain specialist initially believed that the controlled-release oxycondone had a low potential for abuse, boy were they wrong. In recent years, this drug has exploded to the streets. The latest report from the DeA, the Drug enforcement Agency, states that Oxycontins have played a role in over 282 people since the beginning of 2002. (1) The DeA says that it is only a matter of time before every community in this country is confronted with the problem of Oxycontin abuse. No prescription drug in the last twenty years has been so widely abused after it's release. Oxycontin was pain reliever meant to do good, not bad. Oxycontin is prescribed to patients, who are chronic pain, patients who are dying of cancer, recovering from major surgery and or suffering from unbearable headaches. This pain reliever is known for its significant improvement over all other pain relieving medications. The time-release mechanisms allow the right amount of the medication to be released to keep sustained relief for people in severe pain for up to 12 hours. (McHugh) Not only street users become addicts, patients also become very addicted to their own medicine. Many patients go threw heavy withdrawal symptoms when their prescriptions have ended. No longer will insurance pay or doctors write prescriptions. So they too must turn to the black market to fulfill their addiction. In the worst cases some patients turn to heroin because Oxycontins to expensive.
A hero is someone who saves a person from danger or if they are in danger. Heroes do the best they can for others. A hero is someone who saves a person who is in danger even if it’s a stranger and sometimes the danger they're saving them from might just put their own life in danger. In the book The Outsiders the characters Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dally are the hero’s that they are in the book.
There is a hero in us all. A hero is someone who risks their own life to save or do good for others. Ponyboy is a hero because he risked his life to save children from a burning church. Johnny is a hero even though he killed someone it was to save his friend’s life but he also saved children from a burning church. Dally has been arrested, picks fights, and drinks, but when it comes to the people he is close with he has his soft spots for them. All bad boys have a good side.
He argues that addiction is a behavioral disorder caused by the person’s social environment and the lack of resources. Levy believes that, most of the time, an addict does not have services or resources available in order to remove herself from “the environment” where drugs are found constantly. He also stated that most of these addicts are physically unfit since they are poorly nourished, and they are struggling with their own personal stress. Levy, in his article, highlighted that a person’s environment, his health, and the resources he has, play a crucial role in determining whether or not the person will abuse drugs. Levy’s arguments seem to hold a strong position concerning addiction and its causes. However, his arguments seem to contain ambiguous words which can leave readers wandering about the actual definition of the word, and also interrupt their reading. For instance, Levy argues that addiction can be defined as a disease only if it includes pathological deviations from “norms of brain function” (Levy, 2013). He also mentions claims like addiction can lead to some deficits that are “relatively minor”, and addiction can cause impairment only in “certain” social environments (Levy, 2013). These words, norms, minor, certain, can be viewed as ambiguous words since it can have more than one meaning. In addition, Levy, in his article, seems to contradict some of his
Many people dislike the term ‘addiction’ in relation to drugs or other substances, particularly as it infers that a person is powerless over their use of a particular drug or in some circumstances, a number of substances. Whilst others maintain it is this powerlessness that is the foundation of diagnosis and treatment – that treatment is not possible without recognition of addiction itself as the ‘problem’ being addressed. The professional and public perception of addiction is complicated. There are many approaches and models to explain addiction, the role of the addict, and their environment. This essay will compare and contrast two of these approaches, the medical/disease and the social model. Initially this essay will describe the origins of each model, and follow by explaining their respective strengths and weaknesses, and finish with an overview of the key differences between them. This essay will conclude by demonstrating that a holistic approach, and a cross-pollination of these models is the most successful approach to treating addicts. As is the case for all diseases, there are multiple treatment options, and as ever person is different, the results in each individual cannot be predicted.
In the passage `A Nonsmoker With a Smoker' written by Phillip Lopate, the writer discusses his hatred as well as his fascination with smoking. He tells a story about his girlfriend Helen, who was a smoker, and how her smoking bothered him not only in a distasteful manner but also in a manner of not understanding. Because he didn't smoke he didn't realize what it means to those who do. He couldn't understand why, although Helen didn't like the fact that she smoked, she couldn't quit. He couldn't understand the addiction aspect of it. He goes through many of his life experiences of smoking and tries finding understanding with in them.
The rate of death due to prescription drug abuse in the U.S. has escalated 313 percent over the past decade. According to the Congressional Quarterly Transcription’s article "Rep. Joe Pitt Holds a Hearing on Prescription Drug Abuse," opioid prescription drugs were involved in 16,650 overdose-caused deaths in 2010, accounting for more deaths than from overdoses of heroin and cocaine. Prescribed drugs or painkillers sometimes "condemn a patient to lifelong addiction," according to Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This problem not only affects the lives of those who overdose but it affects the communities as well due to the convenience of being able to find these items in drug stores and such. Not to mention the fact that the doctors who prescribe these opioids often tend to misuse them as well. Abusing these prescribed drugs can “destroy dreams and abort great destinies," and end the possibility of the abuser to have a positive impact in the community.
Addiction, Is it just an issue or is it one’s choice? Although no one chooses to walk around in their life and decides if he or she has or wants an addiction. An addiction is a “condition of being addicted to a particular substance” (Peele, 2016). One can be addicted to nicotine, drugs, alcohol, gambling, food, and even shopping if it has an impact on their everyday life. Consequently, some people with an addiction may reach a point in their life where it can turn harmful, therefore, people need to look for assistance. Even so, people still neglect to talk about addictions because people are ashamed, or in denial, and it is probably not one’s choice of topics that is brought up at your breakfast table, or you may never have confronted anyone before. Still, addiction is all around us, and most people today still do not understand or have misconceptions about addictions because addiction is a disease, and studies have indicated that addictions are a physical defect in the brain, thus, making it hard for some people to give up their addictions on their own.