The Heroin Epidemic
According to Josh Katz, “drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for Americans under 50, and deaths are rising faster than ever.” It doesn’t matter your age, gender or social status, heroin affects people of all kinds. It’s a crisis 30 years in the making. (“Chasing Heroin”) The danger from drugs is too great to ignore for us and our children. Drug addiction dates back centuries, but the crisis we are now facing started in the 1980’s when doctors loosely prescribed opiates for pain management. With opiates being so readily available and marketing companies promoting prescription drugs, it made drugs like OxyContin easy to get. Consequently people were becoming addicted to the drugs, and what started with prescription …show more content…
Cari was prescribed Vicodin after the birth of her second child and when the prescription ran out she wanted more. This became a vicious cycle and after lies and persistence she was prescribed 3 to 400 pills a month by doctors. This behavior eventually caught up with Cari and when she presented her problem with her doctor he belittled her and made her feel foolish for not understanding the risks of pain medications. With no help from her doctor, Cari who was now addicted to opioids had moved on to street heroin. Once a beloved mom who had it all was overtook by this drug. (“Chasing …show more content…
In the film “Why a Police Program Wants to Keep Drug Offenders Out of Jail” Lt. Leslie Mills states “you could not incarcerate these people or arrest our way out of the problem.” Instead they are taking a new approach towards the problem and they are calling the program LEAD. LEAD stands for Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion. The program aims to divert low-level drug offenders into community treatment and support services instead of jail. These services include housing, healthcare, job training, and counseling. The goal of this program is to improve public safety and to reduce the criminal behavior. This program saves the public money by not having to book offenders into jail. These treatment services are paid for by private foundations so they don’t cost the public any money. The response to this program has been overwhelmingly positive by both the addicts and the general public.
According to Josh Katz, “drug overdoses are the leading cause of death for Americans under 50, and deaths are rising faster than ever.” It doesn’t matter your age, gender or social status, heroin affects people of all kinds. It’s a crisis 30 years in the making. (“Chasing Heroin”) The danger from drugs is too great to ignore for us and our children. Drug addiction dates back centuries, but the crisis we are now facing started in the 1980’s when doctors loosely prescribed opiates for pain management. With opiates being so readily available and marketing companies promoting prescription drugs, it made drugs like OxyContin easy to get. Consequently people were becoming addicted to the drugs, and what started with prescription …show more content…
Cari was prescribed Vicodin after the birth of her second child and when the prescription ran out she wanted more. This became a vicious cycle and after lies and persistence she was prescribed 3 to 400 pills a month by doctors. This behavior eventually caught up with Cari and when she presented her problem with her doctor he belittled her and made her feel foolish for not understanding the risks of pain medications. With no help from her doctor, Cari who was now addicted to opioids had moved on to street heroin. Once a beloved mom who had it all was overtook by this drug. (“Chasing …show more content…
In the film “Why a Police Program Wants to Keep Drug Offenders Out of Jail” Lt. Leslie Mills states “you could not incarcerate these people or arrest our way out of the problem.” Instead they are taking a new approach towards the problem and they are calling the program LEAD. LEAD stands for Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion. The program aims to divert low-level drug offenders into community treatment and support services instead of jail. These services include housing, healthcare, job training, and counseling. The goal of this program is to improve public safety and to reduce the criminal behavior. This program saves the public money by not having to book offenders into jail. These treatment services are paid for by private foundations so they don’t cost the public any money. The response to this program has been overwhelmingly positive by both the addicts and the general public.