Beyond the history, the article supports the idea that treatment retention rates grew, increased productive rates among individuals being treated, and lower crime rates. The information provided within the article appears to be support with statistics and facts. A majority of the information on the history of the heroin epidemic and methadone were confirmed in additional sources, such as, Medication-Assisted Treatment with Methadone: Assessing the Evidence by Catherine Anne Fullerton, M.D., M.P.H. Joseph’s article stated some opinions, such as, individuals with heroin dependency under legal supervision should have access to MMT. This is clearly an opinion, yet the opinion was followed up with facts regarding the FDA approval of the medication for substance abuse treatment. There are many objective facts within the article that will be used within the research paper to provide factual information that supports the idea the methadone is indeed an effective treatment for individuals that are heroin…
Although Alexander’s argument is far from flawless, he uses emotionally appealing examples in a very calculated way to emphasize a side of drug addiction that is seldom considered. With the idea that drug addiction originates in the way Canadians’ market driven society causes people’s “dislocation”, Canadians have a whole new theory on which to base their attempt to resolve addiction problems, and Alexander’s essay expertly finds a way to make people care about it. If only the care and insight residing within Alexander’s essay could be perpetuated across the country –it would do wonders for the way that people go about solving this drug epidemic. As best stated by Alexander himself: “Canadians are ready for such an adventure” (Alexander 230), and reading this essay is an excellent place to…
Risk of overdose is high, due to its unpredictable pharmacokinetic properties, inadequate patient education, polysubstance abuse, and over prescribing by healthcare providers (Aschenbrenner,2009). The methadone problem is growing in the United States. In fact, methadone…
At this point, the City of Vancouver is provided with only one small injection clinic located on East Hastings st. The clinic supposedly holds the power and capability to engage hundreds of drug users on a daily basis. These percentiles would be quite ideal, although they are not very realistic. If we were to increase our injection clinics in various locations in BC, the service of clean supplies will be much more available to a wide rage of users scattered around the community. Doing so will adequately promote the usage of the clinics, making them well known.…
(Seattle Times, paragraph 11) With there being safe heroin injection sites, the people that control them can monitor and limit the heroin injected; this will benefit the future of the country, by having less death rates. Also, as proclaimed in the article, “ Safe heroin injection sites…,” by Seattle Times, paragraph eleven, sentence one, it states, “...meaning fewer used needles littering sidewalks.” Limited needles on sidewalks, leads to less diseases and harm to come to one's body; therefore, in the future there might less wounds brought about by needle puncture. In conclusion, heroin injection sites could become an everyday normally concept.…
As of late, there has been a drastic increase in deaths due to opioid overdoses, this crisis has spread across our country, and has caused President Trump to publicly come out and describe it as a ‘national health emergency’. Opioid overdoses have destroyed families, careers, and more importantly, it’s taken lives, but Seattle and King County have been taking action on this issue, by creating the nation’s first-ever safe injection site. This is reportedly inspired to be like Vancouver B.C.'s safe injection site called Insite, which was the first safe injection site ever made. What is a safe injection site you might ask? It is a supervised building where drug users can use drugs, the facility will normally provide clean needles and other supplies so that people can use drugs while not under risk of infection or disease.…
This is what leads to accidental overdoses. Not everyone believes that the passing of the Good Samaritan bill will impact the severity of the heroin epidemic or a user’s thoughts on using the…
The essay “Embraced by the Needle” by Gabor Mate is about people with addiction caused by not only taking the drug but also the feeling of abandonment or neglect. Gabor Mate is a doctor who was working as a staff physician at the Portland Hotel and taking care of patients who suffer from drug addiction and mental illness. Mate has also his personal experiences about people who have issues with drug abuse. Mate estimated from his experience with his clients and studies that there are 3,000 to 5,000 people with addictions in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (Mate, 2016). Then, Mate gives some statistics and the experiences of the patients with addition to show his arguments about the reasons behind addiction.…
Who wants to live or work next door to a place known for actively welcoming addicts to use drugs there? Dr. Johnson once again makes a good point on this, “Imagine how neighbors will feel when street-based drug dealers surround the injection sites,” (833). Drug dealers are not commonly known as real nice people, are they? Not only do the sites ruin market values for the buildings surrounding them, but the buildings that are already there will not be able to sell. Dr. Johnson has a brilliant solution for the opioid crisis.…
Canada and Safe Injection Sites Across the globe there are millions of people who face addiction to injectable drugs every day, and a good portion of people within Canada are afflicted with this circumstance. Often the people most affected by the presence of these drugs in society are those whom suffer from mental illness, or those who are currently homeless. The uses of these drugs are dangerous and pose severe health concerns to those whom use them, and an often sad but common outcome of these drugs is overdose. However a way to combat this has been presented by the idea and presence of safe injections sites.…
In addition, academic sources will be concurrently examined to critically evaluate the controversy behind supervised injection sites. The tools we will be utilizing for this method will include, academic journals, newspaper articles, online blogs, and statistic logs that contain information regarding Insite. As a result, this information will provide us with statistics (eg. number of clients making use of the program), as well as records of the different perceptions associated with the facility (eg. public, media, business, and government). Each group member will be participating in gathering data, with an average of 1 to 2 hours of collection per member Data Coding and Analysis…
Avoiding judgment about potentially risky behaviors acknowledging the client's role in decision-making about his or her health behavior is an important component to implementing the harm reduction strategy. Most harm reduction programs are educational campaigns or agencies that aim to reduce drug-related harm and the spread of disease. Needle-exchange programs reduce the chances of drug users sharing the syringes and using them more than once. Syringe-sharing has been linked to infections such hepatitis C and HIV can spread from user to user through the reuse of needles contaminated with a user’s infected blood. Agencies that are medically supervised are designed to handle the problems related to drug use and provide a clean, sterile and stress-free environment for drug users.…
When people think of drug abuse in America they usually think of a heroin addict stabbing a needle into their arm, but Americans often tend to overlook the opioid epidemic’s place in suburban atmospheres. St. Louis County ranks nearly four times the national average for heroin related deaths in the country, and at the center of this is Kirkwood. From the outside Kirkwood looks to be the perfectly stereotypical suburban neighborhood. However, this is not necessarily true. Kirkwood High School has received national media coverage due to multiple heroin related deaths in the high school since 2014.…
Data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found that heroin use has soared in recent years, from 373,000 yearly users in 2007 to 669,000 in 2012". Addicts are more likely to use the same needle with every injection until the needle is unusable.("Your First Step") Addicts in active addiction are also more likely to receive treatment due to these needle exchange programs. However, there is controversy because some people think these programs give addicts the mindset that it 's alright to inject illegal drugs. (McCarton, "Pros and Cons")“We don’t have any study from anywhere showing there is any increase in injectable drug use or drug use in general associated with providing syringes to people,” (Dr. Sharon Stancliff, "We Heart WV"; "Heroin Gains Popularity as Cheap Doses Flood the…
The first step to solving the problem of growing heroin use is to stop enabling addicts, but to instead provide treatment for the ones who want it. Those who choose to not seek treatment or professional help should not be able to purchase Narcan over the counter and carry it around in case of an emergency. Addicts are making the decision to continue the use of something that could kill them, so they should not be provided multiple free “brought back to life” cards. Instead, they should seek out the correct treatment and attempt to be cured, not get off easy and be able to resort back to…