Most Common Treatment For Heroin Addiction example essay topic

INTRODUCTION. It doesn't matter where you venture, where ever you are, the chances are you wont be far away from an addict of some sort, sad but true. Heroin addiction is an ever growing problem on the street's of Britain. After the second world war Britain has seen a huge rise in the numbers of people using un prescribed drug's, particularly heroin. (1) Addiction is a serious disease, that effects hundreds of thousands across Britain, and millions all over the world.

Do we live in a world were drug's are made out to be trendy or glamorous? Or is it that there aren't enough drug awareness program's available for young people to be able to find out all they need to know about drug's and what sort of problems can arise from any kind of substance abuse. Should drug awareness be a part of the national curriculum? would it be successful in deterring young people from starting drug use? Heroin is one of the most dangerous drug's, easily obtained on the streets, right across the country, for a small amount of money (as little as lb 2.50 a wrap).

The fact is each individual case has its own reason's for turning to heroin, and it is up to that person to make the decision to continue using, or to seize using heroin altogether. This can often be a life changing decision, especially when it comes to health problem's caused by heroin use. Heroin use can have many different negative effect's on the human body e.g. diseases and physical appearance, and also causes mental problems, e.g. addiction, an over powering desire to continue taking the drug and to obtain it by any means possible. There are many long term health complications associated with heroin abuse, and there are some short term effect's, that are just as lethal, for example, those who inject heroin run the risk of overdosing, which can kill instantly. There are many disease's linked with heroin abuse, some more serious than other's, the majority of them caused by injecting without taking safe precaution's, for example, people who share injecting equipment with other users, are exposing themselves to deadly diseases, such as, H.I. V or hepatitis, and could then pass it on to someone else, and so on. Heroin addiction also causes various problems in society, such as higher crime rates, as a result of addicts needing to fund their habit.

Heroin is also a class A drug, and anyone found in possession of the drug for personal use could find themselves spending up to seven years in prison, those found in possession with intent to supply could be given the maximum sentence of life in prison. (2) Unfortunately there is no cure to beat the psychological craving's for heroin, but there are drug's available to stop the physical pain and unease caused by withdrawal symptom's, there are also rehabilitation services available, subject to massive waiting list's, unless the addict has lb 3000 lying around to pay for immediate treatment. The most common treatment for heroin addiction is methadone, a synthetic opiate that is liquid in form, and the dose that is prescribed depends on the amount of heroin used by the addict, on a daily basis, but why go from one opiate from another I hear you cry, well, there are many advantages to been on a methadone program, instead of using street heroin, but methadone can be just as addictive as heroin which I will explain fully, in my full written report.