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Needle Exchange Satire

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In 2013 the heroin overdose rate was over nine thousand in the United States according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Heroin abuse is a growing problem in the United States and has been for quite some time. Needle-exchange programs are supplying ample needles to heroin abusers. Although, they do reduce the risks of getting hepatitis C, needle-exchange programs are unethical and enabling. Giving a needle to a heroin addict is giving them permission to use the drug. Is it appropriate to hand out needles to drug abusers?
Cornell University Law School said in their article "21 U.S. Code § 863 - Drug Paraphernalia” that it is illegal for anyone to “sell or offer for sale drug paraphernalia.” Drug paraphernalia can be various items. In …show more content…

I have very strong opinions on drug addiction and why needle-exchange programs should be excluded, it may be hard to understand where these opinions come from unless you have seen someone you love hit rock bottom from drug abuse or until your friend overdoses on heroin or even any kind of opioid. You may not comprehend where the opinions come from until this horrible drug has personally affected your life. Heroin is a monster and these programs are just contributing to the use of this …show more content…

Vivitrol will help the addiction, and by helping the addiction the amount of users will decrease. The decreased heroin abusers will help with the amount of needles being used, which will also lessen the amount of dirty needles being used, logically. There is a down-side, of course, as there is to anything. The participant has to willingly get the injection and want to obtain a drug free life. But, if you talk them into getting the first shot they will be on their way to recovery. We need to try to help the people who want to be helped, not enable them to keep doing what they are

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Needle exchange programs are considered to be illegal in most states in America due to the social stigma that is the sterile syringes become available to the public then it will increase the rate of drug use. Despite the fact that all advantageous outcomes which are mentioned above, from needle exchange programs were scientifically proven by the research there is still a fear that by legalizing injection equipment the drug abuse would increase. Interesting that this argument still exist, because after numerous research no evidence were found that needle exchange programs will lead to increased drug injection (National Research Council ). The philosopher Immanuel Kant would say that it is not ethical to provide clean syringes to drug addicts

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1306 Words | 6 Pages

Within the same period, the data show, 81 percent of first-time heroin users had previously abused prescription drugs” (Markon and Crites, 2014). Prescription painkillers and heroin are known to

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1551 Words | 7 Pages

Opioids are highly addictive drugs. These addictions typically start out as a prescription from a doctor for a high amount of pain, typically used after surgery or other highly painful injuries. The people that are given these pills typically form a bodily and mental dependency on the drug. Because of this, they will go out and search for opioids as a street drug in the form of heroin. Some will also use heroin because of peer pressure surrounding the drug or a necessity for a greater high compared to a simpler drug that they were on

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Many teens use painkillers for everyday use such as party's, pain/aches, or to relax and escape from reality. But not all the teens or adults know that just taking painkillers can lead them later to use heroin. A reason why teens and adults lean more towards the use of heroin is because it can get the person higher faster just as it’s mentioned in Stacey Naggiar article, Opiate addiction: How prescription painkillers pave the way to heroin, Naggiar states, “Consuming a pill by mouth can take up to a few hours to have an effect... Injection is the second-fasted way to achieve the desired effect...

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1144 Words | 5 Pages

Their sample consisted of volunteer participants from a needle exchange program. Of the participants, most reported witnessing at least one overdose prior to the training, with the greatest percentage having witnessed between two and five. The OPP curriculum included information on preventing, identifying, and responding to an overdose and participants were trained to administer Naloxone. The vast majority of participants who witnessed an overdose after the initial training reported using their Naloxone with a positive outcome. This shows that opioid users can use the skills they obtain in OPP to identify overdoses and respond with Naloxone (Bennet, Bell, Tomedi, Hulsey, & Kral,

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935 Words | 4 Pages

Underlying Causes: The increase in the sale of opioids is considered to be the root of the opioid crisis, as the drugs have been proven to be highly addictive. An addiction to prescriptive opioids, however, can lead to an addiction to synthetic, illegal opioids, such as heroine or fentanyl, which are less expensive and easier to acquire. In fact, in their journal article, “Associations of nonmedical pain reliever use and initiation of heroin use in the United States” Pradip Muhuri and associates discovered that “the recent (12 months preceding interview) heroin incidence rate was 19 times higher among those who reported prior nonmedical prescription pain reliever (NMPR) use than among those who did not (0.39 vs. 0.02 percent)” (Muhuri et. al). In other words, abusing prescription opioids significantly raises the chances of abusing illicit drugs, such as heroin.

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523 Words | 3 Pages

Opioid addiction is tough to treat because the addiction is so severe; however, it is not impossible to treat. Opioids relieve stress and create a sense of peace which is what has the people come back for more. If one were to treat the addict in the properly manner, the addict would feel no reason to go back to the drug. Also improving the access to these treatment options will decrease the crisis. The best type of treatment the addict can have is support.

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591 Words | 3 Pages

Harm reduction makes it possible for drug abusers to use new needles without sharing due to having access to supplies and education. Studies have shown that in Canada the risk of HIV dropped drastically in the nineties after harm reduction intervention among drug users and by 2011, the number dropped from 40 percent to 1.7 percent among individuals who admitted to sharing needles. Further, harm reduction strategies, such as needle exchanges have led to a reduction in the spread of blood-borne diseases. Harm reduction is useful to individuals who may fail at rehabilitation. Therefore, harm reduction is seen as a way of letting a problem continue, while keeping it from getting

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1068 Words | 5 Pages

Once again this is a good cause, but a horrible way to go about the prevention of HIV and AIDs. Giving free needles to drug addicts is like giving a free gun to PTSD war veterans to protect themselves from anything that might scare them. There is no doubt in understanding where that can lead. Giving needles to drug addicts only increases the use of drugs and those same needles might become part of the circulation of dirty needles also. The needle exchange program must not continue and a different way must used to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS or any other diseases.

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925 Words | 4 Pages

The biggest concern comes from the majority of society that cite that it is wrong to provide addicts with the tools they need to get high and that it will inevitably lead to more types of drug abuse if it is made easier for them to get high to begin with. Also, these programs are, for the majority, being funded by tax payer’s dollars and a lot people feel as if addicts are not worth spending their hard earned money on, in any way. As far as the individual communities where these programs now exist, there is the fear that places of this nature will bring in more addicts and as a result the crime rate will go up (Ackerman, 2015). The crux of the concern is revolved around moral dilemmas and is rooted in what each individual feels, personally, is bad about such programs. However, the concern over the cost of needle exchange programs can be addressed with basic math/economics.

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474 Words | 2 Pages

These drug programs are court mandated, yet are not state regulated. These addicts view them as option when their craving kick back in and they are having an off day, and they leave. They view the risk of being incarcerated with greater reward rather than being in a drug program, so they never finish them. If these programs were ran by the state (and not an outside company), mandated that the addicts do not leave until a certain point of ability, and actually implemented, I feel that the opioid crisis will have hit a dent in

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685 Words | 3 Pages

  However, hospitals have changed the approach to pain management but still haven 't made a change. More hospitals still provide opioids to patients with the dependence on the drug.             Overall, the opioid addiction represents a serious issue in American society. The best solution in decreasing the number of overdoses is the low dosages of opioids provided by hospitals and doctors.

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556 Words | 3 Pages

All of this leads to one question; what can be done to stop the heroin epidemic? The first thing we need to realize is that the heroin is not just going to disappear off of the planet it is here to stay. So we need to look at other methods other than the typical “crack down on dealers so it wont be around” this method will not work dealers will just be replaced with new dealers. The real problem comes from under education of the drugs. Growing up all I knew about heroin was that it existed and that it was bad.

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954 Words | 4 Pages

Behavioral treatment helps addicts change unhealthy ways of thinking, counseling and sometimes psychotherapy. Medication treatment might sound wrong, why give them other prescribed drugs?. The addict suffers withdrawals symptoms and to help them stop using opioids, we supply them with other none dangerous drugs which close to the same effect. Treatment is possible, we just gotta reduce the epidemic among our young

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970 Words | 4 Pages

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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