Recommended: Prevailing research for needle exchange
In “How About Low-Cost Drugs for Addicts?” (1995), Louis Nizer argues that drug addiction is a serious problem and we are losing the ability to gain control over drug addiction. Nizer suggests the government should create clinics that provide drugs free or at nominal cost and be staffed by psychiatrists. The benefits of the new approach will push the mob to lose the main source of its income, the drug dealers will run out of business, and the police or other law enforcement authorities would be freed to take care of other crimes. Nizer also believes that free drugs will win the war against domestic terrorism caused by addicts. On the other hand, Nizer provides some of the opposing arguments that providing free drugs would consign a person to
In his essay, “Louis Cost Drugs for Addicts” (1995), Louis Nizer claims that we should offer legal, low-cost drugs to people. For his logos appeal, he mentions three reasons to support his claim. Which are the mobs would lose the main source of its income, the pushers would be put out of business, and the police and other law-enforcement authorities, domestic or foreign, would be free to deal with traditional nondrug crimes. He uses a pathos appeal when he says murder and serious crimes under the influence of drugs and talks about different types of domestic’s terrors in our nation. Finally, he uses ethos appeal when he says that the government should create clinics that provide drugs for nominal charges or even free.
• In the state of Massachusetts a prescription is required from a doctor in order to distribute hypodermic needles. In the year 1990, two citizens of the city of Lynn started a needle exchange program in an goal to fight against the spread of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome also known as (AIDS). The two men legally purchased new sterile needles over-the-counter in Vermont. The defendants were at a specific location on Union Street in Lynn from 5 P.M. to 7 P.M. every Wednesday evening in 1991 until their arrest made in June 19. They accepted dirty needles from society in exchange for clean needles; they exchanged between 150 and 200 needles each night ranging from 50-60 people.
If there was an open market for drugs and Americans’ were educated on the effects drugs can have on their bodies, the monopoly for drugs would rapidly decrease. Drugs are outlawed in America yet prohibition has never been successful in America. Anytime the government has tried to stop the distribution of a substance people have always jumped at the chance to make
The “Bluff” needle exchange program was a program that helped advocate AIDS and promoted a greater hygienic approach to drug use. In turn, this helped combat the transmissions of HIV. Because the Drug Paraphernalia Law made it illegal for people to carry needles, it caused people to turn to shooting galleries instead. For instance, instead of the law combating the use of drugs, the sharing of needles caused an increase in the spread of the disease. The “Bluff” is an interesting and thought-provoking concept because of the conflicting opinions about the program from the community.
Recent reforms can curb the opioid epidemic. Yes, health care professionals have realized the complex problem and they now understand the problem and what needs to be done. According to CQ Researcher, “Experts see some progress in the fight against opioid painkiller abuse. After peaking in 2012, the number of prescriptions written for opioids declined 12 percent between 2013 and 2015, according to IMS Health, a market research company. Symphony Health Solutions, a data company that studies the pharmaceutical industry, found an 18 percent drop in that period.”
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.
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.
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
Especially when the needle exchange program provides the resources to start or continue using intravenous drugs. But not only does it prevent well being, it also can start a new rise of intravenous drug
The Opioid ban is where doctors are not able to prescribe patients their prescription drugs of opioids that they need. Opioids should be given to all those in need because many opioid alternatives are lest effective. Such as the alternative of therapy, and alternative medicines witch can potentially make matters worse for them. The opioid ban should not be administered due to resulting issues that could occur. To introduce this topic, I will talk about what opioids are, why the opioid ban is an issue for those who use them, and the effectiveness of the governments’ and doctors ‘recommended alternatives.
In American society, this solution would be the best way to lower drug overdoses by providing alternative treatments without using
The legalization of drugs has been at the center of interminable debate. Drugs have widely been perceived as a dominant threat to the moral fabric of society. Drug use has been attributed as the source responsible for a myriad of key issues. For instance, it is believed that drugs have exacerbated the already weak status of mental health in the United States in which some individuals suffering from mental illness administer illicit substances such as heroin or cocaine in an attempt to self-medicate. Moreover, drugs are blamed for turning auspicious members of the community into worthless degenerates.
Social norms, however ridiculous they may seem, seem to affect all of us. This even includes those who society already sees as outcasts. When drug users feel more comfortable admitting their abuse, they tend to seek help more often. Reducing stigma allows them to access resources that they otherwise would have been too ashamed to pursue. Another way to reduce drug abuse is by creating syringe exchange policies where users can take their dirty syringes and get clean ones in return.
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
