Heroin addiction has been a societal problem in the United States for decades. Heroin addiction is on the rise in rural areas across the country, and law enforcement officials as well as healthcare providers are scrambling to address what is seen as an epidemic. The social issues related to heroin addiction are often focused on …
What Happens to Your Body When You Are Addicted to Heroin Read More »
Just how addictive are opiates such as prescription painkillers and heroin? Consider Melissa’s story. After regaining consciousness in the hospital after a heroin overdose, the young mother unhooked her IV from its pole, walked out and went straight to her dealer, still in her hospital gown. “And he sold me heroin, the same heroin that …
‘Chasing The Dragon’ Shows Ugly Reality of Opiate Addiction Read More »
In the U.S., the rate of death from heroin overdoses has been increasing fairly steadily for a number of years. Health professionals and some private citizens can treat a heroin overdose with a medication called naloxone. However, naloxone typically comes in an injectable form, and circumstances don’t always allow for the easy injection of affected …
Heroin and prescription opioid medications have common origins in naturally occurring substances found in the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). Among other things, this means that both heroin and prescription opioids are capable of producing fatal opioid overdoses. In a report issued in October 2014 in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers from the federal …
In many cases, teens try prescription drugs and get hooked on the addictive medication. Soon, however, they are unable to afford the high cost of a drug like OxyContin and begin looking for alternatives to reach a similar high. All too often, that alternative is heroin. Compared to prescription drugs, it is cheap and easy …
Heroin abuse is a problem with potentially fatal consequences. The risk of mortality does not just lie in the many physical problems that can result from abusing heroin over a long period of time. And adding the risk of fatal overdose into the picture doesn’t completely account for the many people who do not survive …
Heroin Addiction Often Signals Need for Mental Health Services Read More »