The Fight Against Heroin Addiction - 2176 Words

Do you ever wake up with an overwhelming urge? It’s all you can think about, consuming every inch of your mind. The need is so strong that it makes you physically sick without it. What if the urge was so bad that you would lie or steal from friends and family just to satisfy it? Now imagine your fixation could kill you at any time, yet you continue to want and continue to use. This may not be your life, but sadly this is the daily life faced by millions of heroin and opioid addicts. The rise of heroin use in our country has reached a critical level, one that requires immediate action by our governmental figures to curtail the senseless deaths that are gripping our communities. By increasing funding for rehabilitation services and rethinking how our legal system treats drug offenders, we can hopefully begin winning the fight against heroin addiction. Heroin is derived from opium, a naturally occurring substance found in the seedpods of the Asian poppy plant. Historians were able to date references to opium as far back as 3,000 B.C. based on depictions found in Sumerian clay tablets. It was considered a sacred substance for its ability to create feelings of euphoria. Beginning in the 1800’s, pharmaceutical companies were fighting to develop new drugs based on the recently discovered ability to derive powerful chemicals from natural plants. One of the early discoveries was morphine, a purified form of the main ingredient found in opium. Heroin was then synthesized in the lateShow MoreRelatedAddiction Changes The Way The Brain Processes Information964 Words   |  4 PagesAddiction changes the way the brain processes information. To understand addiction, you first must learn its language—how addiction develops and why addicts continue to use despite the harm it inevitably causes. Addiction is a mysterious illness because it seems to make such little sense to the onlooker and even to the addict. 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