The Heroin Epidemic

1675 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Helping the community

Volunteering and participating in service projects are two of the most rewarding activities in my opinion. Some people may find it was a hassle or only do it because they have to meet the minimum requirement for school or work. Helping others, for me, has always been somewhat second nature to me. Over many years of volunteering I believe I have developed qualities that will stick with me for life and benefit me in my career. As early as freshman year, in high school, I found myself looking for ways to give back. I started by looking for opportunities within school, where I came across the A+ tutoring program, and so my journey of giving back began. While tutoring, my patience for others really evolved, partly by choice and partly because it had to. I was always searching for community programs to be a part of that could help me evolve as a person and at the same time raise awareness to important issues. I think overall one of the biggest lessons I learned while being a part of these groups, was to try to make yourself and your community a better environment for your peers. After high school I still volunteered for a local group that tutored and mentored inner-city schools, but it wasn’t until recently that I discovered a superior problem requiring immediate service in our community. The heroin epidemic.
‘Heroin is an opioid drug that is synthesized from morphine, a naturally occurring substance extracted from the seed pod of the Asian opium poppy plant.” (Heroin) The deadly drug has been around since the 1850’s; it was a leading causing death then and is heading to be one again now. Heroin use is on the rise due to how cheap, easy, and pure it is. In the past year alone, I have personally known three people that have died becaus...

... middle of paper ...

.... (Lehman)

Bibliography
"Curiosity + Heroin: Not Even Once - About." Curiosity + Heroin : Not Even Once - About. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
"Facts & Stats About Heroin." Surburban Junky. N.p., 2011. Web.
"Heroin." National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
"International Statistics of Heroin Addiction & Abuse, High School Students and Youth: Foundation for a Drug Free World." International Statistics of Heroin Addiction & Abuse, High School Students and Youth: Foundation for a Drug Free World. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
Lehman, Carol M., and Deborah Daniel DuFrene. BCOM. Mason, OH: South-Western, 2013. Print.
"Trying Heroin Once, Addiction, Abuse & Experimentation: Foundation for a Drug Free World." Trying Heroin Once, Addiction, Abuse & Experimentation: Foundation for a Drug Free World. N.p., 2006. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Embraced By The Needle

    716 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gabor Mate 's essay “Embraced by the Needle” addresses important issues on the negative effects that childhood experiences have on the development of addictions, and the long term effects that drugs play throughout an addict 's life. The author states that addictions originate from unhappiness and pain that is often inflicted upon addicts at early age such as infancy. In Mate essay, he uses many patients past childhood experiences to help create a picture of the trauma that an addict faced as child and the link it plays with who they are today. Mate builds an impressive argument based on the way he organizes his ideas on what addiction is, and how it corresponds to a person 's childhood experience. The author does this effectively

    Read More

  • Addiction In The Movie Drugstore Cowboy

    1048 Words  | 3 Pages

    Addiction is one of the hardest problems to overcome, yet people often find some reward in abusing drugs. We all ask the question to what makes a person an addict, or why is it so hard for drug addicts to kick a drug problem. However, can we say that getting a hold of drugs is much easier in today’s society, or is it made available to easy. In this day and age, heroine seems to be a major epidemic; furthermore, opiates have been around for centuries. Therefore, people have been battling addiction for as long as opiates have been around. In Drugstore Cowboy, the film takes a look in to the life of four people who rob drugstores in order to support their habit; however, this lifestyle

    Read More

  • Chasing Heroin Analysis

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.”

    Read More

  • Jenny's Battle: The Devastation of Heroin Addiction

    2264 Words  | 5 Pages

    Heroin is one of the most dangerous drugs in the world. When using heroin, people run the risk of developing serious “infectious diseases” such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis (The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), 2014, para 10). Above all, heroin use often results in death. The DEA Strategic Intelligence Section (2016), who prepared the 2016 National Heroin Threat Assessment Summary claims that heroin is the most fatal drug compared to other drugs because heroin related deaths occur at a much higher rate. In 2014 cocaine users outnumbered heroin users by about three and a half to one, yet there were twice as many heroin related deaths compared to that of cocaine (p. 9). One of the main causes of the large amount of death is a result of what dealers are lacing their heroin with. Fentanyl, a drug that is considered “50” to “100” times stronger than morphine (NIDA, 2016, para 1), is being used by dealers to mix in with their heroin in order to increase its effects and the quantity of their product. Because of how strong fentanyl-laced heroin is, the possibility of overdosing rises, which is the effect that numerous addicts seek out to attain. In the article “Spiked”, written by Maggie Lee (2015), Lieutenant Rick Mason from the Atlanta Police Department emphasizes, “… if somebody OD’s, that’s who [heroin addicts] want to buy their heroin from because it’s the strongest and it must be the best” (para 22). Heroin addicts chase the powerful batches, often asking around for the dealer selling the batch that is causing mass overdoses. Their high tolerance for heroin lead them to believe that they will not fall victim to a deadly overdose until it is too late. When these users consume what they think is their normal dose, the fentanyl kills them. Those unable to receive prescription medication from a doctor will argue that heroin is a cheap way to relieve pain. While heroin may help to

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Drugstore Cowboy

    1072 Words  | 3 Pages

    Addiction is one of the hardest difficulties to overcome, yet people often find themselves caught in the world wind of addiction. We all ask the question to what makes a person an addict, or why is it so hard for drug addicts to overcome this problem. However, can we say that getting a hold of drugs is much easier in today’s society, or is it made available to easily. In this day and age, heroine seems to be a major epidemic; furthermore, opiates have been around for centuries. Therefore, people have been battling addiction for as long as opiates have been around. In Drugstore Cowboy, the film takes a look into the life of four people who rob drugstores in order to support

    Read More

  • Addiction To Heroin Essay

    1919 Words  | 4 Pages

    Heroin was originally synthesized in 1874 by a man named C.R Alder Wright. Created as a solution to opium, a drug that had plagued many American households. It was originally produced for medical purposes evidently becoming highly addictive. Heroin “... was originally marketed as a non-addictive substance” (“History of Addiction”) which inevitably increased its popularity. It became especially popular in places of poverty. Heroin became a solution to struggle. So common it was almost as if heroin was a prescribed medicine for hardship. Known as “[a] treatment of many illnesses and pain” (“A brief history of addiction”) but later revealed that it caused more harm than good. Being so easily accessible it became immensely common among musicians.

    Read More

  • The Drug Issue in Australia

    1316 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are an estimated 25,000 heroin users in Victoria (Hodder, p.10). This is a very large amount of people on drugs, in the last 10 years it has been shown to increase and therefore the drug issue is becoming a major problem to all the people in Victoria.

    Read More

  • Syringe Exchange Programs

    3215 Words  | 7 Pages

    ...conomic class, whose dependency most likely began after being prescribed opiates. This has resulted in a demographic shift in the subpopulation of heroin addicts, which further emphasizes the misguided stereotyping of heroin addicts in particular, but also probably other drug subculture demographics as well. Addicts need to be identified as sick individuals who deserve the same health services and treatment as other individuals addicted to other, more socially accepted habits, like eating sugar or socially acceptable alcohol abuse. We, as a country and society, need to harbor on the need for more societal, political and financial support of better, more effective, non-punitive means to rehabilitate drug addicts. Thus, both the social and legal exclusions of addiction need to be rethought, while also replacing the inherently engrained image of an opiate drug abuser.

    Read More

  • Heroin Essay

    1057 Words  | 3 Pages

    The physical and chemical properties make heroin a desirable drug. It is highly addictive and fast acting, which lure users in. The first time one uses the drug it is said to cause disagreeable feelings and nausea. But following further use it causes a sudden rush in your brain, lasting 1 to 2 minutes, that feels as if it is relieving all the tension one has, followed by a calm and relaxed state that can last a few hours (“Heroin in the Brain”, n.d.). These feelings of satisfaction and ease make this drug ...

    Read More

  • Heroin: The Dangers Of Heroin Use

    901 Words  | 2 Pages

    An estimated 3.7 million people had used heroin at some time in their life, as of 2005. Over 119,000 of the people surveyed reported using it within the month preceding the survey. Heroin is an illegal, highly addictive drug. It is the most abused and quickest way to get a high from the opiates. An opiate is a drug with morphine-like effects, derived from opium. Heroin comes from morphine, a naturally occurring substance extracted from the seed pod of certain varieties of poppy plants. Heroin can be in the form of white or brownish powder, or a black sticky substance known as “black tar heroin.” Purer heroin is becoming more popular on the streets. Most of the street heroin is “cut,” or laced, with other drugs or substances such as sugar, starch, powdered milk, or quinine. Quinine is a bitter crystalline compound present in cinchona bark, used as a tonic and formerly as an ant malarial drug. Most heroin abusers do not know the actual strength or content of the drug which puts them at a greater risk of overdose or death.

    Read More

  • The Effects of Substance Abuse in Young Adults

    810 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Impact of Drug Use on Your Life." ReachOut Blog RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of David Sheff's Beautiful Boy

    1330 Words  | 3 Pages

    David Sheff’s memoir, Beautiful Boy, revolves around addiction, the people affected by addiction, and the results of addiction. When we think of the word addiction, we usually associate it with drugs or alcohol. By definition, addiction is an unusually great interest in something or a need to do or have something (“Addiction”). All throughout the memoir, we are forced to decide if David Sheff is a worried father who is fearful that his son, Nic Sheff’s, addiction will kill him or if he is addicted to his son’s addiction. Although many parents would be worried that their son is an addict, David Sheff goes above and beyond to become involved in his son’s life and relationship with methamphetamine, making him an addict to his son’s addiction.

    Read More

  • Drug Addiction : Substance Abuse And Mental Health

    1128 Words  | 3 Pages

    Over 24 million United States residents 12 and older are facing drug addiction, but shockingly only 10 percent will obtain help from an expert facility (“Substance Abuse and Mental Health”). Abuse and addiction negatively effects the addict along with humanity. An estimated $600 billion is spent annually as a result of substance abuse. As surprising as this number may be, it does not explain the depth of damaging public health and safety implications of drug addiction, essentially there may be child abuse, domestic violence, and loss of employment (“Understanding Drug Abuse and Addiction”). Addicts face critical health complications, monetary problems, ruined families, illnesses, or even death. As an addict falls further into their addiction, they will lose control of their drug usage, and most times exhibit harm to themselves and others (“Drug Abuse Ruins Lives”). Drug abuse takes a major toll on the addict, their family and on work relationships; on the other hand, there are numerous of people who have dealt with substance abuse overcame their situation and used it as motivation.

    Read More

  • Drug Abuse

    1263 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nagle, Jeanne. Everything You Need to Know About Drug Addiction. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2012.

    Read More

  • Reflection On Volunteering

    1778 Words  | 4 Pages

    A reflection of my volunteering experience can be summarized in two words: Life-changing. It is hard to explain the feelings that occur when you involve yourself in selfless acts for your community, such as volunteering. There is a feeling in your heart that you cannot ignore, maybe it is the happiness you feel or the overflow of emotions in helping others. In other words, it is a feeling in which you want to share with others. Maybe with a friend, maybe a classmate, maybe a family member, or maybe even a stranger. Either way, spreading how life-changing volunteering can be is a great start to making a positive change in your community by simply by involving others.

    Read More

More about The Heroin Epidemic

Open Document