The deviant identity that I chose was the heroin epidemic, and how it is portrayed in the media. I took interest in this topic, because 2016 was yet another year that the number of fatalities due to heroin overdoses has increased, one of them being someone very close to me. On August 27, 2016, I received a phone call to go to my father’s house. My family was on the porch, crying. There was a flashing police car, and the door was wide open as an officer walked out with a bent spoon in his hand. I was informed that my father, my best friend, had died after overdosing from heroin. I remember walking into the hospital room, seeing him lying on the bed with blue, cold skin, the breathing tube still in his mouth. There was vomit around his mouth
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Drift Theory, found by David Matza, states that young people participate in criminal acts without fully intending to do so and without necessarily possessing values that condone crime. (sociologyindex.com). Matza stated that these people gradually lost sense of moral ties, which caused them to slowly drift into delinquency. (sociologyindex.com). Addiction typically starts out with pain killers. Once the medicine stops working (either the patient becomes immune or does not need it anymore), their doctor will stop prescribing it to them. However, after taking these pills for so long, they become used to the “relaxation” that this medication brings them, so they resort to street drugs to fill that void. The heroin epidemic is a serious matter. Over the past three years, the number of deaths due to heroin overdoses continues to rise, especially this year. There are all kinds of literature that portray the heroin epidemic, as well as different branches of the crisis. There are articles that talk about heroin and its history, books that talk about heroin and other opioid addictions, journals about overdoses, and many court cases about anything and everything involving heroin. This year, overdoses have been shown all over the media. As mentioned before, I lost my father to an overdose this year. I chose this topic not only to raise awareness of this crisis, but to hopefully find some closure in losing my best
Drift Theory, found by David Matza, states that young people participate in criminal acts without fully intending to do so and without necessarily possessing values that condone crime. (sociologyindex.com). Matza stated that these people gradually lost sense of moral ties, which caused them to slowly drift into delinquency. (sociologyindex.com). Addiction typically starts out with pain killers. Once the medicine stops working (either the patient becomes immune or does not need it anymore), their doctor will stop prescribing it to them. However, after taking these pills for so long, they become used to the “relaxation” that this medication brings them, so they resort to street drugs to fill that void. The heroin epidemic is a serious matter. Over the past three years, the number of deaths due to heroin overdoses continues to rise, especially this year. There are all kinds of literature that portray the heroin epidemic, as well as different branches of the crisis. There are articles that talk about heroin and its history, books that talk about heroin and other opioid addictions, journals about overdoses, and many court cases about anything and everything involving heroin. This year, overdoses have been shown all over the media. As mentioned before, I lost my father to an overdose this year. I chose this topic not only to raise awareness of this crisis, but to hopefully find some closure in losing my best