Topic: COMMUNITY INTEREST
By Tammy Duffy
Heroin is a highly addictive narcotic. This year alone, it has been reported that there are 810,000 Americans addicted to heroin.
What is the cost of that figure to society? The price is in the billions.
Let’s divide where this money goes. Heroin abuse gives an individual health problem like heart infections, miscarriages and overdoses, just to name a few. The main way of getting heroin into the body is by injection, and this act alone increases susceptibility to infectious disease such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.
Heroin suppliers make the drug from opium. Its chemical name is diacetylmorphine. Users will smoke it, snort it or inject it. It causes euphoria and acts on the central nervous system. When the euphoria is gone the user gets dry mouth, skin flushing, and heaviness. Along with these withdrawal symptoms, he or she experiences nausea, vomiting and itching. Then he or she may sleep for a long period of time. He can’t reason very well. His heartbeat and breathing slow down.
At this point, most people are hooked. Within hours after heroin abuse, withdrawal symptoms start. The heroin user experiences pain in the bones and muscles, restlessness, diarrhea, insomnia, chills, convulsions and vomiting. These withdrawal symptoms may last for months.
First time heroin users inevitably become long-time heroin addicts. Heroin abusers suffer artery damage and develop problems with their lungs, liver, kidneys and veins.
Heroin Use
Just one decade ago, the average heroin user consumed more drug than he does today. That is because the purity of the drug is higher.
Studies have shown that there were 149,000 new heroin users in 1998. 80% of them were under the age of 26. They looked at those who had used heroin in the past month and found that in 1993, 68,000 people used heroin, and in 1999, 208,000 people used heroin. That is a big increase. It is being snorted and smoked more because of the fear of injecting it and being susceptible to HIV/AIDS. It was also found in this study that heroin use was increasing among the teenagers in 8th, 10th and 12th grades during the 1990s.
With its use being on the increase it is a good idea we all get more educated and pass this information on to your families.
If your public officials are ignoring this epidemic, you need to train yourself to save your community. We hope these weekly posts are a source of education for you.
Those public officials who ignore this should be voted out of office. In Mercer County, NJ we have an election coming up, we can only hope someone who cares about this matter is elected. The current mayor in one of the towns demonstrates zero interest in addressing the community on this matter. Do you want a mayor who could care less about this issue? Who cares less about the residents and their own personal gain?
When this issue was ignored in Indiana....they now have a new AIDS epidemic on their hands due to the addicts sharing needles. Will towns become the new epicenters for AIDS epidemics due to public officials ignorance to these critical issues? It already has happened in Indiana. It can happen in Mercer County as well. The officials who allow this to go on are murdering their own residents by ignoring these types of epidemics. Should these public officials be charged with a crime when this happens?
