9781422274279

HEROIN DEVASTATINGOURCOMMUNITIES OPIOID EDUCATION

OPIOID EDUCATION

FENTANYL: THE WORLD’S DEADLIEST DRUG HEROIN: DEVASTATING OUR COMMUNITIES PAINKILLERS: THE SCOURGE ON SOCIETY ALTERNATIVE TREATMENTS FOR PAINMANAGEMENT HOW FIRST RESPONDERS AND ER DOCTORS SAVE LIVES AND EDUCATE TREATMENTS FOR OPIOID ADDICTION UNDERSTANDING DRUG USE AND ADDICTION

HEROIN DEVASTATINGOURCOMMUNITIES OPIOID EDUCATION

TIM GEORGE

MASON CREST PHILADELPHIA | MIAMI

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© 2020 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. Printed and bound in the United States of America. CPSIA Compliance Information: Batch #OE2019. For further information, contact Mason Crest at 1-866-MCP-Book. First printing ISBN (hardback) 978-1-4222-4380-0 ISBN (series) 978-1-4222-4378-7 ISBN (ebook) 978-1-4222-7427-9 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file at the Library of Congress Interior and cover design: Torque Advertising + Design Interior layout: Tara Raymo, CreativelyTara Production: Michelle Luke Publisher’s Note: Websites listed in this book were active at the time of publication. The publisher is not responsible for websites that have changed their address or discontinued operation since the date of publication. The publisher reviews and updates the websites each time the book is reprinted.

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Who uses Heroin? ..................................................... 7 Chapter 2: Origins and History of Heroin ............................... 21 Chapter 3: How Does Heroin Work? ........................................ 39 Chapter 4: The Long-Term Effects of Heroin .......................... 51 Chapter 5: How Is Heroin Addiction Treated . ........................ 65 Chapter Notes ............................................................................ 85 Series Glossary of Key Terms ................................................... 88 Further Reading . ....................................................................... 90 Internet Resources .................................................................... 91 Index . .......................................................................................... 93 Author’s Biography and Credits .............................................. 96 K E Y I C O N S T O L O O K F O R : Words to Understand: These words with their easy-to-understand definitions will increase the reader’s understanding of the text while building vocabulary skills. Sidebars: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives. Educational videos: Readers can view videos by scanning our QR codes, providing them with additional educational content to supplement the text. Examples include news coverage, moments in history, speeches, iconic sports moments, and much more! Text-Dependent Questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented there. Research Projects: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connected to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis. Series Glossary of Key Terms: This back-of-the-book glossary contains terminology used throughout this series. Words found here increase the reader’s ability to read and comprehend higher-level books and articles in this field.

The impact of heroin use is felt all across the United States. Scientists and government officials have identified heroin use as one of the most important drug use issues affecting the country today.

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND

addict —a person who cannot stop using an illegal drug, even though the drug is causing them harm. overdose —an amount of a drug that is toxic to a human’s system and can result in coma or death. rigorous —extremely thorough, exhaustive, or accurate. strung-out —a heavy drug user who acts erratically.

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Heroin: Devastating our Communities

1 CHAPTER

Who uses Heroin? Replace Matthew McKinney’s name with that of a million other addicts and their stories all sound the same. Matt was a typical teenager in a middle-class family, active and friendly. But he changed when he started doing drugs. He began smoking marijuana when he was thirteen years old, and later started injecting heroin. When Matt was fifteen, his family had him committed to a rigorous drug rehabilitation program in Minnesota. After four months of treatment and counseling, he was released. Things seemed to be looking up. Matt was clean and sober, and those who cared about him believed Matt was his old happy self. However, his family didn’t realize that his happy exterior hid the fact that Matt was still engaged in a hopeless war against heroin addiction. Eventually, a friend from his drug-using days returned to his home town, and Matt’s struggle with heroin addiction resumed.

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Who Uses Heroin?

One December night, Matt had a brief phone conversation with his worried mother. “He said he was sorry for leaving without telling us and he would be home soon,” she later said. “He sounded fine and was laughing and talking as if nothing were wrong.” Shortly after the phone call ended, Matt injected himself with heroin. But this time, the drug that he had purchased illegally was exceptionally pure and strong. It was too much for his system, and caused an overdose . Early the next morning, the seventeen-year-old was found dead. Matthew McKinney had fallen prey to one of the most addictive and powerful illegal drugs: heroin. At one time, it would be nearly unthinkable for a middle class American teenager to use heroin. But heroin abuse is no longer relegated to the partying rock stars or strung-out junkies of yesterday.

To hear a heroin addict talk about her addiction, scan here:

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Heroin: Devastating our Communities

“Heroin is a Beast, and that Beast has infiltrated every town and city in America,” writes Ritchie Farrell, a former heroin addict who now speaks about addiction. “The Beast has come for your sons and daughters. The Beast has come for your fathers and mothers. And that Beast has only one mission, to bury as many Americans as possible.” Rising Rates of Heroin Use Heroin use among Americans has typically been low. It spiked during the VietnamWar era of the late 1960s and 1970s, as soldiers became addicted to the drug while in Southeast Asia, where it was readily available. However, anti-drug programs in the late 1970s and 1980s resulted in a sharp decline in heroin use. Over the past two decades, that decline has been reversed. Between 2002 and 2017, the number of people who have died from heroin overdoses has increased at a staggering rate. In 2002, less than 2,000 people died from heroin overdoses. By 2017, that figure was around 16,000 heroin-related deaths, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have shown that heroin use has increased among demographic groups that once had the lowest rates of heroin use. For example, the rate of heroin use has doubled among females and non-Hispanic whites. Heroin use has also become more common in American suburbs and among wealthier families. “This isn’t the 1940s, 50s or 60s when heroin was only used by the most lowest-life dregs of society in skid rows and downtrodden ghettos in the worst parts of urban areas around the country,” writes Robbie Woliver in Psychology Today . “These young junkies today aren’t looking to some photo of

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Who Uses Heroin?

This web page shows a photo of Matthew McKinney, who died at seventeen years old due to a heroin overdose.

a scabby, withered lost soul in a magazine or documentary as who their peers are, they are looking at Jimmy the high school football player, Sally the cheerleader and Tommy the valedictorian as their role models—and Jimmy, Sally and Tommy are all high on heroin.”

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Heroin: Devastating our Communities

Young People’s Choice Woliver learned about the growing popularity of heroin among teens because a mother with a heroin-addicted sixteen-year-old son suggested he look into the problem. His research helped Woliver realize that heroin has become the drug of choice among an alarming number of today’s teens and the cost to the economy and families is incalculable.

Drug Overdose Mortal i ty Age-adjusted ratesa of drug overdose deaths by drug or drug class and year—United States, 1999–2016

Age-adjusted ratesa of drug overdose deaths by drug or drug class and year—United States, 1999–2016

Source: National Vital Statistics System, Mortality File, CDCWONDER.

rce: National Vital Statistics System, Mortality , CDCWONDER.

Source: National Vital Statistics System, Mortality File, CDC WONDER. *Because deaths might involve more than one drug, some deaths are included in more than one category.

Age-adjusted rates* of drug overdose deaths by drug or drug class and year—United States, 1999–2016

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Who Uses Heroin?

WARNING SIGNS OF HEROIN USE

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) tries educate teenagers and young adults about the dangers of heroin. According to SAMHSA, some signs that a person is using heroin may include: • They seemunusually euphoric, or drowsy

• Their mental functioning is impaired • Movement and breathing are slowed • Needle marks or boils from injections

Signs that a person has overdosed on heroin can include: • Shallow breathing • Extremely small pupils • Clammy skin • Bluish-colored nails and lips • Convulsions • Coma If you think a friend has overdosed on heroin, call 911 immediately. Medical personnel may be able to reverse the effects of the drug using Narcan or other treatments, if they are notified in time.

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Heroin: Devastating our Communities

Reasons for the increase in heroin use among teens aren’t hard to find. The drug is inexpensive, and needles are no longer required to use it. Pop culture has made the “heroin look” acceptable. Parents and teachers don’t know what to look for, and young users often fall through the cracks of medical care. At one time, heroin users were considered the dregs of society, and the drug was seen as a last resort for the most desperate addicts. Today, Woliver notes, the younger

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, studies indicate that women have a higher risk for overdose death than men during their first few years of injecting heroin.

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Who Uses Heroin?

generation takes a cavalier attitude toward heroin. The high schoolers he interviewed were not embarrassed to give their names as they offered their stories of drug abuse. The problem will not get better, Woliver says, until “the young public’s idea of heroin changes.” According to the most recent statistics available from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), about 25 percent of all heroin users in the United States are teenagers or young adults. In 2016, HSDUH found that 13,000 kids between the ages of twelve and seventeen had used heroin in the previous year, while 227,000 young adults (age eighteen to twenty-five) had used heroin in the past year. Over 700,000 adults age twenty-six or older used heroin in the past year. Easy to Obtain Another study, the annual Monitoring the Future Survey conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, reported in 2018 that almost 30 percent of high school seniors say they find heroin easy to obtain. A significant number of young teens—12.6 percent of eighth graders—say they had no problem finding heroin in their first try. Why did heroin become so accessible? A growing number of experts point to an increase in the prescription of opioid painkillers during the late 1990s and 2000s as a driving force behind the resurgence in heroin use. Drugs like oxycodone (sold under the brand name OxyContin) and hydrocodone (Vicodin) were used to treat all types of pain, thanks to intense marketing campaigns by Purdue Pharma (the manufacturer of OxyContin) and other major pharmaceutical companies. Their misleading statements to doctors about the effectiveness and safety of opioid drugs triggered a public health epidemic that claims tens of thousands of lives a year.

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Heroin: Devastating our Communities