Action Post

Being that this issue is so close to me and I've already done so much research behind it, I believe that this is my line of practice in the Social Work field. Being that this issue hit home with individuals that are important in my life I would love to bring awareness to people of all ages and walks of life. I'm a firm believer that if you can reach and change the lives of at least 1 person you've accomplished your goal. For some kids things set in and they tend to remember things on what they should and shouldn't do as they become adults. Some take heed some don't, but I believe that the awareness should start in middle school all over.

When it comes to awareness the things that should be talked about are limitless. I don't think anything should be held back from the middle school aged children almost to scare them in a sense. Then I would like to do outreach work all over with resources for treatment and assistance for addicts, showing them that there is life after addiction. I would allow them their space being that I know that everyone isn't ready to deal with their demonds that drove them to their addiction. I would assure them that they're not being judged by lending a listening ear  and a helping hand to anyone that just want to vent about their struggles as well as work on them.

There was this show that I watched; there was a lady that did outreach work on the struggles with heroin. She allowed addicts to swap out old needles for new ones. Although this sounds as if she's promoting drug abuse she's not. I feel that she's saying I understand your struggle and I'm not judging you but I at least want you to try to be as safe as possible despite your situation. She also gave out free Narcan and HIV test. I'm sure with these items she has save many lives behind addicts using heroin, it's like a safety kit. This would absolutely be me. I believe that I was put here to help. Instead of throwing the needles out in the open there would be safety boxes all over. Anything to protect the innocent surrounding people from harming and/or infecting themselves.

I think raising awareness would be the most important and cautious thing to do at this point. I'm not just saying to talk about it once and then leave it alone. No! There need to be support groups billboards and commercials about how things are going downhill with this epidemic. The fact that there's Narcan in elementary schools is scary to me. The way that these children have to grow up is so unfortunate for them. With all of these new treatment centers opening up hopefully there will be big drop in this horrific epidemic.

Passionate Post

This topic is dear to me based upon the fact that the opioid epidemic hit home for me, which is when most things become noticeable to anyone having to deal with it at your front door. Also living in a city where it was never prevalent, or even really talked about but is now noticeable due to addicts on street corners under the influence. Large cities such as Baltimore, Maryland for example is a city where heroin is well known and used and have been for a long time, so much that people walk right by addicts that are high out of their minds, slumped over in uncomfortable positions while standing. This is eye catching for someone that doesn't see this on a daily basis.

I have a childhood friend that became addicted to heroin at such an early age. Her reasoning is that she was just curious. Her boyfriend was drug dealer and he sold the substance which made it easy for her to get. She began stealing it from him before he realized that she was stealing from him she had already had a $200 a day habit. She went into recovery for 18 months only to come home and relapse and have been using ever since which was about 4 years ago. At the tender age of 34 she had to undergo open heart surgery because of an infection that she had around her heart due to IV drug use.

I also have a brother that is addicted to heroin. His addiction came from recreational use of Percocet. He always had mental health issues but used drugs such as marijuana to self-medicate which turned out to a gateway drug for him. He then began to use Percocet and the loss of a childhood friend caused his recreational drug use to spiral out of control where he then graduated to heroin. My brother is also an IV drug user and has been for about 5 years now. When he don't get what he want (meaning the heroin) his attitude is gruesome. Neither he nor my childhood friend is active in the lives of their children, so not only are they suffering the children are hurting and suffering too.

This is a powerful drug and it does not discriminate whom it will take under. I've seen families torn apart and people torn down behind it. When you become a heroin addicted it completely takes over your life. People forget about morals and respect once that monkey get on their back, which is a saying when you’re in need of the drug. When an addict can't get their fix it causes the body to go through withdrawals exhibiting flu like symptoms. This is told to me to be one of the worse feelings ever. This is where people lose respect for themselves and do what needs to be done to get what they need for their habit. Now days I see young people using opioids and bragging about it, Percocet and Promethazine which is basically the liquid form of Percocet. These children or young adults don't even know the path that they're possibly headed down. Opioids are nothing to be played with and need to be talked about more frequent about the dangers and the outcome of it all

Informative Heroin/Opioids and its effect on the U.S.

What is heroin/Opioids?

Heroin is an illegal substance that’s affecting a large number of diverse communities all over the world.  According to The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Heroin is an opioid drug made from morphine, a natural substance taken from the seed pod of the various opium poppy plants grown in Southeast and Southwest Asia, Mexico, and Colombia. Heroin can be a white or brown powder, or a black sticky substance known as black tar heroin. Other common names for heroin include big H, horse, hell dust, and smack.  

NIDA states, that every day, more than 90 Americans die after overdosing on opioids.  Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and pain relievers available legally by prescription, such as oxycodone (OxyContin), hydrocodone (Vicodin) codeine, morphine, and many others. Then the crazy part is that there are doctors that are prescribing these meds to individuals for extended periods of time which then leads to an addiction. When patients are cut from their opioids trying to go without them causes one to go through vital withdraws that are unbearable for most. The withdraws are the same or very similar to the withdraws that heroin addicts endure. This is why studies show that these meds are gateway drugs to heroin when misused.

According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) drug overdose deaths and opioid-involved deaths continue to increase in the United States. The majority of drug overdose deaths (66%) involve an opioid. In 2016, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids (including prescription opioids and heroin) was 5 times higher than in 1999. From 2000 to 2016, more than 600,000 people died from drug overdoses. These numbers aren’t even alarming to addicts. When they hear of an overdose they want to know where the drugs were purchased for them to assure that they’re getting “the good stuff”.

What became alarming to me is that naloxone is now in all schools from elementary to high schools. Naloxone/Narcan is a drug that is used to reverse the effects of a drug overdose cause by opioids. When I became a health assistant for school health we were trained to use Naloxone in the case of an emergency. This one or double dose container price range from 20-150 dollars in cost, but is given out like candy although for a good cause in a sense. If you have family members or friends that are addicts you should look into being trained to carry Naloxone, the way the world is today you never know when you may have to use it.