Javon lamarPosts two or more 100+ word responses to initial posts of classmates. Posts motivate group discussion and contributes to the learning community by doing 2+ of the following:

offering advice or strategy

posing a question,

providing an alternative point-of-view,

acknowledging similar experiences

sharing a resource

Javon lamar

Accounting for the biggest rise in heroin addiction are whites aged 18 to 44, misuse of opioid prescription drugs abuse helped fuel this addiction. Heroin use in the U.S. has risen five-fold in the past ten years and dependence on the drug has more than tripled. This population is made up of white men with low incomes and little education. Few resources to deal with the problem affect most people in this group. Heroin use includes those who have tried it but did not become dependent.

Addiction also rose more among unmarried adults to include woman, but not as prominent as if is for men. Dr. Silvia Martins, An associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health agreed that drug addiction should be treated as an illness. "By recognizing it as a disease, more people will become aware that they need to seek help, or if they are frequent users, to know that addiction is preventable."

The opioid epidemic continues throughout this country now effecting every age. Children now have easier access to the drugs from every before. Drugs can be accessed in medicine cabinets, high school parking lots, and street corners and now rural areas may be the most vulnerable. Rural states are now seeing more death and illness as it moves into areas with large concentrated states.

Prescription opioid painkillers such as hydrocodone and oxycodone have showed that fewer kids are using/overdosing less on these drugs, but suspected teen suicides are more prone to use these drugs. Fentanyl, which is a synthetic opioid is approximately 100 time more potent than heroin. It is used to treat severe, chronic, and hard to control pain, perhaps seen as those with cancer.

Outside of hospitals forms of this drug can be a skin patch, tablets, nasal spray, lozenges and can only be written by a medical specialists. From 2013-2014, fentanyl deaths have increase 80% according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Fentanyl-lace heroin has been growing on the streets. Methadone is another drug used to treat cancer patients and to assist addicts to safely wean them off of their addicted drugs.

Methadone, when used as it was not intended has the potential for abuse. A rescue medication on the market is Naloxone, this drug is a quick way to reverse the effects potential saving lives. First responders, police departments, and state departments of education have been stocking up on this drug as more people are finding themselves in near death experiences.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse has been monitoring the use of illicit drugs for the past two years. Results showed a continued long-term decline in the use of illicit substances, marijuana, as well as tobacco and some prescription medications. Overall high school numbers have gone down from the peak of usages, one as an example are cigarettes, they were at a high of 10-12% in 1991, twenty five years later the rate has dropped to only 1.8%, showing a great success across the board.

Overall, the use/abuse of prescription and illicit drugs have declined dramatically over time, some at better success rates than others. The unfortunate reality of drugs is that there is something always new out there, adaption of current drugs, mixing this with that all to give the new drug a different feeling and potentially killing yourself by doing them. Most street drugs are cut with toxic levels that should never be ingested.

Javon

Work Cited:

Abuse, N. I. (2016, December 13). Teen substance use shows promising decline.

Heroin and Addiction Rates Rise Sharply. (2017, March 29).

National Center for Health Statistics. (2017, May 03).

Alcohol and Drug abuse are major problems that cause many issues within the United States. Some people feel that the drug and alcohol use are on the decline but there has actually been a major increase in drug and alcohol abuse over the past several years.

There was a survey released in 2013 that showed there are about 24.6 million Americans that are aged 12 and older that used an illicit drug in the past month. That was approximately 9.4 percent of the population which was 1.1 percent more than the results in 2002.

The most commonly used illicit drug is marijuana and the use of this drug is the main cause of the increase of drug use within the U.S. When it comes to alcohol abuse, there are approximately16 million adults that struggle from alcohol abuse problems. Some of the problems that are related to alcohol abuse are car accidents, medical incidents, accidental deaths, and also loss in productivity within businesses. Alcohol abuse costs the United States approximately 200 billion dollars every year.

With this information, you are able to infer that the use of drugs and alcohol are on a steady climb instead of declining. There are so many ways that people are able to acquire drugs that it is going to be almost impossible to put the abuse to an end. I feel that more people need to be educated on what problems are associated with drugs and alcohol so that there will be more people that are less likely to get involved with these things to cause issues.