Opinion: Injunctions Aren’t Stopping The Injections

In Los Angeles, smoking pot is as common as breathing oxygen. It’s the preferred recreational drug here in California from walking along Venice beach to the homes of banal citizens. Out of all the drugs in the recreational spectrum it’s the most smelt, heard of and used but there’s a different story for other regions in the U.S.

In the Southern States and Northeast region, opioids such as heroin are the go-to substance and it’s becoming a global epidemic.

It’s one of the extremes on the drug lists being classified as a schedule 1 drug. In the words of the Drug Enforcement Administration schedule 1 drugs are, “defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule 1 drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence.”

For such a dangerous drug, it’s growing in popularity. Why is that? Heroin is one of the cheapest and easiest drugs to make. A common household could be a bakery for it. Talk about economical addicts.

Not only is it popular for the frugal addict, it’s a growing business. Heroin is one of the largest drugs being trafficked internationally.

According to Vice, $50 million worth of heroin was seized by the feds in New York this week. Reportedly "to put it in perspective, this load was so large it carried the potential of supplying a dose of heroin to every man, woman and child in New York City," said NYC Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan.

The business is becoming as the numbers show.

This drug bust is just one of the many in the duration of the past 10 years. Each year it fluctuates, mainly because heroin addicts have a 14.3 times higher mortality rate meaning those who use end up dying and eventually another flock of younger people come in as the next generation to use.

It’s a vicious cycle. Heroin changes you. The diaries of most heroin addicts, such as Kurt Cobain, are scribbles of near schizophrenic thoughts and their love/hate relationship with the drug. One use can lead to 30 minutes of euphoria and a lifetime of addiction.

A majority of heroin addicts make failed attempts to become sober. Strangely enough, It’s not entirely their fault.

The treatment for heroin addiction besides cold-turkey abstinence is taking another drug; suboxone or methadone, which is even harder to come by than your household heroin bakery. Suboxone and methadone have proved in numerous studies to be helpful and used as an antidote for the drug, yet they are the hardest to be prescribed. Doctors are limited to how many they prescribe and unfortunately the number of addicts casts a shadow over the amount of prescriptions doctors are allowed to give.

The discrepancy between addiction and treatment has now led to 2015 being another year of increased heroin users and deaths. CNN reports, “The number of deaths from heroin use is up by 39%.”

Heroin is the fast track to death and the medical field isn’t doing their part.

As with drug concerns, injunctions are usually enforced making it harder for access yet the law never seemed to stop an addict. Imprisonment of drug users has just proven to be counterproductive.

In Argentina, Amsterdam, and Portugal all drugs are legal and their citizens are better educated on their effects this has led to a shift in the decline of usage and addiction.

In stark contrast, America is attempting to make an Ironclad shield from the problem and it’s just worsening the problem.

The U.S.’s treatment toward narcotics is disturbingly similar to Russia’s approach. Russia has enforced a “total war on drugs” and that hasn’t changed the six million and growing addicts.

Drug users are developing new ways to get high faster than governments can enforce policies.

As history repeats itself, the growing number of laws concerning drugs also correlates with an increase in users. That’s been proved by the prohibition period in the 20’s and 30’s proving that it only creates a booming business and creative ways to use behind closed doors.

Addicts are becoming creative and finding common products that can be found in a grocery store to create a cheap high. Krokodil, a desomorphine costing around $3.00 to buy on the street is the combination of products you probably already have in your home. It's a cheaper fix to heroin with harsher side effects causing your skin to resemble a Crocodile after injecting. The other side effect is a 3 year life span estimate after using even once.

There will always be a way around the law and addicts are now discovering that information on Internet forums concerning household items that can be utilized for your high. It isn’t long before you’ll realize that eye drops enhance the high running through your veins and there are cheaper ways to get high from making your own product like Krokodil to huffing paint.