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Heroin Epidemic Analysis

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Over the past few years, the addiction of heroin has increased due to varieties of reason in different communities across the United States. The majority of media attention is focused on suburban, white, middle-class heroin abusers, meaning that the majority of America’s effort and resources to end the Heroin Epidemic is mainly for the White Community. Resulting in a dramatic increase of deaths caused from Heroin overdose in the minority communities in the past seven years. In the article, “How the Heroin Epidemic Differs in Communities of Color” by Sarah Childress, mentions how certain minority communities lack medical access for Heroin overdose (e.g. Naloxone) and knowledge of laws to protect the drug users from incarceration, Maryland’s
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Quinones states, “As the opiate epidemic mangled the middle class, these kids doped up and dropped out. Earlier generations of opiate addicts became self-employed construction workers or painters, because that was all they could manage with heroin, and often jail, in their lives” (274), which is a major problem America faces when trying to solve the opiate epidemic. If we educate the states about the addiction rates and potential danger of opiates, public opinion could shift, creating alternate solutions to solving the heroin epidemic in America. In order to lower the amount of opiate addicts the stigma that used to be associated with opiate use needs to return. The fear that used to surround opiate use was one of the only reasons opiates were not used as medication.

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“What pain?” a South Carolina cop asked rhetorically one afternoon as we toured the fine neighborhoods south of Charlotte where he arrested kids for pills and heroin. Crime was at historic lows, drug overdose deaths at record highs. A happy façade covered a disturbing reality. I grew consumed by this

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In the article, “Don’t blame addicts for America’s opioid crisis. Here are the real culprits” by Chris McGreal, America’s widespread opioid problem is discussed. Primarily, McGreal points the finger at multiple sources, such as the FDA, pharmaceutical companies, and the government, for aggravating the

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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

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The author of the article continued to explain the r “As a society, and as clinicians, we have to go far beyond simply viewing the drugs as the problem. In order to give everyone suffering from addiction the best chance possible to enter and stay in recovery, we urgently need to start paying attention to the broader issues that allow addiction to fester, such as housing, employment, poverty, systemic racism, and the effects of incarceration,” (Grinspoon). The author of the article, believes that the problem of addiction in low income neighborhoods is a direct effect of the lower quality systems that are set up for the people living in those neighborhoods. After Sonny’s addiction was caused by the lack of resources in his lower income community, he was unable to get the adequate resources to overcome his cycle of

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Heroin Battle in Tucson Throughout the years heroin use has become a lot more popular and has been easier to obtain in the small town of Tucson, Arizona. Before heroin was viewed as an inaccessible and rare drug for people to use, but since more people started using it it has become normalized in our society. The massive outbreak of heroin use has cost the city of Tucson thousands of dollars and has influenced the younger generations to use this drug or to start using drugs and overall has taken many people’s lives. In order to prevent the use of heroin there should be a mandatory class that teens, children, and adults should take to learn about this harmful drug and many other drugs that are on the streets of Tucson.

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I. Importance: As American deaths from drug overdoses continue to rise in the United States, the nation is faced with a public health crisis so profound that in October 2017, President Trump declared the opioid epidemic to be a national public health emergency (Merica). President Trump’s declaration came after numerous studies indicating the danger opioid addiction posed; for example, a 2016 study entitled “Increases in Drug and Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths—United States, 2010-2015” claimed that drug overdose deaths “nearly tripled during 1999-2014,” reaching a startling high 52,404 deaths in 2015 (Rudd, et al). These statistics are more than just disturbing revelations regarding the opioid crisis; they are evidence of a serious problem that is rapidly affecting the lives of more and more Americans every year. Death by overdose is not the only public policy concern, however, as millions of Americans are also addicted to prescription opioids.

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According to Western & Becky Pettit (2010), African Americans have always been incarcerated at a higher rate than whites. Laws were enacted from 1914 (The Harrison Act) that restricted the sale of heroin and cocaine, which were both legal and established the legal framework for intervention on drug policy. However; during the 1980’s and 90’s marked an unprecedented escalation

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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.

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“The New Jim Crow offers a devastating account of a legal system doing its job perfectly well. We have simply replaced one caste system with another one.” — Forbes Magazine “The New Jim Crow” sheds light on the racial amplitude within the war on drugs. It contends that federal drug policies unfairly target minorities, i.e. people of color. Due to this discrimination, people of color, black men particularly, are kept in a never ending cycle of living in poverty or behind bars.

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The prevalence of opioid drug-related overdose has risen progressively over the past two decades becoming one of the leading causes of death in the United States. According to Center for Disease Control, drug overdoses accounted for 52,404 U.S. deaths, including 33,091 (63.1%) that involved an opioid in 2015 (Rudd, Seth, David & Scholl, 2016). To date, the numbers are continuously snowballing and it has been a major factor in the burgeoning costs of healthcare in the United States. In fact, the economic burden of opioid abuse cost the nation a staggering amount of $78.5 billion a year, taking into account the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and even goes beyond issue of criminal justice (Florence, Zhou, Luo &

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Introduction: Attention getter: according to ohio.gov, over 4,000 people died of drug overdose in 2016. Relevance: drug abuse is a growing epidemic especially here in Ohio, which is ranked 2nd worst overdose rates in the united states. Credibility: multiple of my family members have been addicted to drugs and i have first hand experience of how drug abuse can affect someone's life, and how rehab affects people addicted to drugs vs how prison affects people addicted to drugs. Thesis & Preview: as a result of the growing drug epidemic in the United States, thousands die every year. There are many proposed solutions for this problem such as decriminalization, rehab, prison, and even the death penalty.

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When people take these synthetic heroin pills, they do not feel as though it is a drug addiction as much as it is a way for them to deal with pain, over-stimulation, and as a tranquilizer. Today, we are currently facing an epidemic with drug addiction and continuously trying to solve the problem with a war on drugs. “The U.S. spends about $51 billion a year enforcing the war on drugs, and arrests nearly 1.5 million people for drug violations, according to Drug Policy Alliance, a drug policy reform group” (Ferner). Since the United States spends so much money on this epidemic, the numbers should start to go down, but it is instead doing the opposite. It is easy to figure out the numbers through doctors, “Increases in prescription drug misuse over the last

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