Our Country's Drug Epidemic
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Figure 1
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Prescription Drugs
Oh no our country is facing a huge opioid epidemic. What is a opioid though? A opioid "is a group of natural substances, as the endorphins, produced body in increased amounts in response to stress and pain." (Opioids) So why would someone use substances for pain and stress to get high off of? Well when someone is actually in great pain the opioids trigger in your central nervous system a good feeling so it essentially tricks the brain in thinking that everything is alright. Now how did this lead into such an epidemic?
Heroin
Now our countries on its back heels, it is facing a prescription drug problem along with a ever growing heroin threat. What leads into heroin most of the time is prescription drug abuse. The pills are often very expensive and hard to find while heroin is very cheap and abundant in every major American city. What is heroin though and how could it kill you?!? Heroin a "white crystalline narcotic powder C 21 H 23 NO 5 derived from morphine, formerly used as analgesic and sedative manufactured and importation of heroin are now controlled by federal law in the U.S. because of the danger of addiction." (Heroin)Its past use might of been medicinal but it is not used anymore for that property. What now though is leading to many deaths in the United States is Fentanyl, which is commonly laced with heroin and pain pills to give it a 50x greater punch! Also, heroin is a very euphoric drug which can lead to death ""As your dosage goes up, you have a rapid tolerance to the euphoric response, but not nearly as much to the respiratory response,"(How heroin kills para 5)
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Figure 2
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Effects of Heroin
So the user commonly heats up the heroin and injects it straight into their bloodstream through a syringe. This is definitely the most common practice but it has been said that some users snort heroin as in Pulp Fiction. As shown through the movie the person automatically had heart failure due to ingesting the product through snorting. A danger that the user commonly faces is that the needle is not sterile, they do not know exactly what kind of drug they are ingesting, and lastly the single use of this product leads to your body being addicted almost immediately.
Opium & Transporting
Heroin and prescription drugs are quickly becoming the largest pandemic since the crack-cocaine epidemic started in the 80's. We as a country need to start prioritizing its citizens first so they can help rather than lock them up for being addicted to a drug. Also, we need to cut down on the manufacturing of this product while most of it doesn't occur in the United States we are the world's largest users in heroin. Opium is abundant in southeast Asia and central America. Which essentially created the countries into the heroin capital of the world. So we need to stop allowing this drug to run free in our country. While people are dying and getting hurt from this drug, other people are seizing vast profits including the drug cartels, and pharmaceutical companies. |
Figure 3
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(Figure 1) 5 Things to Know about Opioid Overdoses. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2017, from
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2014/02/11/5-things-know-about-opioid-overdose
(Figure 2) Fatality rate for heroin and cocaine users is 14 higher than for the general population.
(n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2017, from http://thedailyjournalist.com/scientia/fatality-rate-for-heroin-
and-cocaine-users-is-14-higher-than-for-the-general-population-rate-for-heroin-and-cocaine-users-is-
14-higher-than-for-the-general-population/
(Figure 3) Neuroscience for Kids. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2017, from
https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/hero.html
Heroin. (n.d.). Retrieved April 26, 2017, from
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/heroin?s=t
How Heroin Kills: What Might Have Happened to Philip Seymour Hoffman. (2017, April 28).
Retrieved May 01, 2017, from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140204-
philip-seymour-hoffman-actor-heroin-overdose/
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/opioid
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