Heroin is flowing in the streets of the suburbs that surround our schools, where teens and young adults are dying of overdoses daily. I am talking about the heroin epidemic, a silent disease that has risen yet again. There is not enough awareness nor help for opiate addiction and the users that succumb to its temptation. Heroin use has drastically increased 63 percent over the past decade, and with that the overdoses have doubled (Curry, 2015). It is a common misconception that heroin is primarily in the poor, rundown neighborhoods, and thats where it stays, where it will never reach the “safe” neighborhoods. The reality is, it is in the poor neighborhoods, but it is also in the middle class and wealthy neighborhoods; it is everywhere. This
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One of the several things that people have in common is that we all want to be like and feel included, and some will do desperate things to feel this way. A common activity among teenagers is to engage in recreational use of alcohol and drugs at parties, or get togethers with friends. This can be a problem when someone doesn 't want to participate and feels forced to, but goes along with anyway, i.e. peer pressure. Heroin is never the first drug that experimented with. It usually starts with marijuana, which is popularly characterized as being the gateway drug. As marijuana fails to provide the same level of high as when they first experienced it, they start to look for harder drugs, like cocaine and/or heroin. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, individuals who engage with the use of marijuana are three times for likely to try and be addicted to heroin. Once a teenager is addicted to heroin it is much harder to treat them because “Some young people are still having fun and they don 't desire to get sober, so they end up cycling through treatment or end up in jail” (Weiss-Burke). Until they realize the effects that the drug has caused, it is likely the cycle of switching from rehab facility to jail will remain …show more content…
It seems to work both ways, according to Dr. Gilman, “Fifty percent of those with an addictive disorder will have a psychiatric disorder. And for those who have a psychiatric disorder, about 20 percent have an addiction problem” (Foster, 2009, P.2). Those who choose to use drugs in their adolescence are at an increased rick for mental illness, because at the time of use your brain is going through developmental changes and is very venerable to drug abuse (Drug, 2007). In the United States, roughly 8.9 million people suffer from a mental illness and a substance abuse problem (Patterson, 2012). Individuals who suffer from mental illnesses tend to seek out a way to self medicate by using drugs and/or alcohol to cope, but it will remain untreated and will increasingly worsen until they seek out professional help. Unfortunately health care systems are set up so that they treat both drug abuse and mental illness separately, rusting in inefficiently. Some rehabilitation centers forbid the use of any medications that can treat their patients mental illnesses. There is still a stigma for both drug use and mental health that it often hinders the individuals to get
One of the several things that people have in common is that we all want to be like and feel included, and some will do desperate things to feel this way. A common activity among teenagers is to engage in recreational use of alcohol and drugs at parties, or get togethers with friends. This can be a problem when someone doesn 't want to participate and feels forced to, but goes along with anyway, i.e. peer pressure. Heroin is never the first drug that experimented with. It usually starts with marijuana, which is popularly characterized as being the gateway drug. As marijuana fails to provide the same level of high as when they first experienced it, they start to look for harder drugs, like cocaine and/or heroin. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, individuals who engage with the use of marijuana are three times for likely to try and be addicted to heroin. Once a teenager is addicted to heroin it is much harder to treat them because “Some young people are still having fun and they don 't desire to get sober, so they end up cycling through treatment or end up in jail” (Weiss-Burke). Until they realize the effects that the drug has caused, it is likely the cycle of switching from rehab facility to jail will remain …show more content…
It seems to work both ways, according to Dr. Gilman, “Fifty percent of those with an addictive disorder will have a psychiatric disorder. And for those who have a psychiatric disorder, about 20 percent have an addiction problem” (Foster, 2009, P.2). Those who choose to use drugs in their adolescence are at an increased rick for mental illness, because at the time of use your brain is going through developmental changes and is very venerable to drug abuse (Drug, 2007). In the United States, roughly 8.9 million people suffer from a mental illness and a substance abuse problem (Patterson, 2012). Individuals who suffer from mental illnesses tend to seek out a way to self medicate by using drugs and/or alcohol to cope, but it will remain untreated and will increasingly worsen until they seek out professional help. Unfortunately health care systems are set up so that they treat both drug abuse and mental illness separately, rusting in inefficiently. Some rehabilitation centers forbid the use of any medications that can treat their patients mental illnesses. There is still a stigma for both drug use and mental health that it often hinders the individuals to get