Heroin Addiction – Effects And Treatment Research Papers Example

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Abstract:

The paper discusses the threats that usage of heroin poses to health of a human being and that of the society. It also discusses the treatments that can possibly be used for eradication of this ill habit. There is a very high correlation between the usage of heroin and ending up doing crimes. People addicted to heroin mostly go on to do crimes to make money from which they intend buying more drugs. Some even get assigned tasks like selling the drugs on the behalf of bigger dealers with a return in the form of free drugs. They also get assigned tasks like bringing in more people to use heroin from a specific dealer. They do this to avoid getting arrested themselves and use the addicted people as mules.

Introduction:

Amongst the most hazardous and the most dangerous of drugs that are consumed by addicts, heroin stands tall as the most threatening to the health of its clients and the society as a whole. It contains a chemical that take their toll on the nervous system and cause sleepiness and dizziness. Heroin is different from many other such drugs in a way that it induces both a psychological and physical addiction to its user. It activates parts of the brain that makes the body feel relaxed both neurologically and muscularly. Some symptoms of having gotten addicted to heroin include cramping of muscles, panic, nausea and insomnia (NIDA, 2014).
Shooting galleries is the name given to places where heroin addicts gather to get injected or to sniff or to smoke the product. There are two ways through which heroin is injected into a human body; one is through injection in muscles and the other through injection in the veins that carry the effect through the entire body. Its effect lasts for as much as six hours after the dose is taken. Heroin is a very expensive drug that costs anywhere from $5 to $50 for just tenth part of a gram. It is to be noted here that only one pound of heroin can be used for 4500 doses.

Heroin and Crime Relation:

There is a very thick bond between heroin and crimes in ways more than one. Firstly, using and selling of heroin is an offense itself yet it is practiced widely because of the high price that it has. Secondly, the product causes an addiction so bad that addicts end up spending their lifelong earnings in purchasing it and once they are finished with them, they start attempting crimes like shoplifting, street robbing and stealing from others. Sometimes they end up killing people for money. With the passage of time; as the popularity of this drug has gone to increase, so has the number of offense cases, and the arrests made due to them (Bart, 2004).
Sale of heroin is not an easy thing to do considering the level of strictness there is. Laws have been passed through rigorous legislation and rules are being enforced by governments. Anti-narcotics divisions are working in the police forces of almost all the countries. In the presence of so much strictness, it is a task next to impossible to sell heroin publically. Mafias, therefore, form that have both economic and political bounds, and they are often very well connected with the policy makers and enforcers that enables them to carry out this enormous task. Pizza connection is a very well known example in which a mafia used to sell heroin at pizza parlors. Apart from this, there are other several examples where camouflaged sale of heroin got carried out. Trade laws tightened with the passage of time to make sure there is no trade of narcotics within state boundaries nor can the drugs be imported from outside into a state. The problem of leakage in the process still exists (Hutcheson, 2001).

Treatment:

Depending upon the stage of addiction, the treatment methods and procedures can greatly vary. They also vary based on the background of the addict and the amount of support that he gets from family ad from society that he lives in. Although widely considered as controversial, still methadone treatment is regarded as one of the most successful treatments for heroin addiction. In this form of treatment, a drug addict is given dosage of methadone instead of heroin so that his body gets used to the new one. Then slowly the amount of methadone is decreased to become nil at a stage. However, this mode is a very expensive one as methadone is costly. However, the dose of methadone is always taken orally instead of making injections and sniffing or smoking it. This is done so that the effect of the dose reaches the brain slowly i.e. after having gotten digested. Other alternatives including the same process are Levomethadyl acetate (LAAM) and buprenorphine that have been licensed for the cure of heroin addiction. The controversy that surrounds this form of treatment in that it also addicts the patients further as it goes on to treat them. Another criticism is that the patients are often not taken onboard entirely and are lied to about the content of the dose (Mark, 2001).
Counseling is a much commonly used and far much agreed upon way for heroin rehabilitation. This process takes a lot of time, and these sessions of rehabilitation can last for several months with the slightest of results to find. These methods of treatment of heroin addiction come under the umbrella of behavioral treatment. Like grades in tests, patients of such mentoring programs earn points as a result of the effort that they make against heroin addiction. However, this mode of treatment needs full consent of the patient. If the patient does not cooperate and tries to flee from this treatment, then the effectiveness of this method is badly shattered (Wilson, 2013).

Conclusion

Heroin addiction is an evil not just on the level of the individual who uses it, but also against the wider society. It gives rise to crimes and thus expands the harm to other, more innocent people in the society. In fact, it can be safely said that the addicts are innocent as well since they cannot help but take the drug and when they are short of money, do what the drug dealers say. Rehabilitation through medication and through steadily mentoring the addict back to life are the most common variants used. They actually need help from their family and friends instead of being ridiculed.

References:

F, W. J. (2013). Chapter 11: Biological Bases of Emotion and Addiction. Biological Basis of Behavior (pp. ). San Diego, United States: Bridgepoint Education. - See more at http://reffor.us/index.php#sthash.nHnwZvVl.dpuf
Bart, G., Heilig, M., LaForge, K. S., Pollak, L., Leal, S. M., Ott, J., & Kreek, M. J. (2004). Substantial attributable risk related to a functional mu-opioid receptor gene polymorphism in association with heroin addiction in central Sweden.Molecular Psychiatry, 9(6), 547-549.
Mark, T. L., Woody, G. E., Juday, T., & Kleber, H. D. (2001). The economic costs of heroin addiction in the United States. Drug and alcohol dependence,61(2), 195-206.
Hutcheson, D. M., Everitt, B. J., Robbins, T. W., & Dickinson, A. (2001). The role of withdrawal in heroin addiction: enhances reward or promotes avoidance?. Nature Neuroscience, 4(9), 943-947.