heroin Archives - The Painful Truth

Lessons Learned from Someone Who Has Struggled With Addiction

In the February 19, 2018 Refinery29 documentary, producer Jacki Huntington shares the stories of Dr. Lipi Roy, Kassandra Frederique of the Drug Policy Alliance, and Cortney Lovell. These women are working to solve the opioid crisis through their work in addiction medicine, drug policy, and recovery services.

Courage in Escaping the Grip of Addiction

In an accompanying essay, Cortney Lovell courageously tells her story of trying to escape the grip of addiction. Lovell has been in recovery for heroin addiction for ten years, and she understands the tremendous effort and frustration that goes into reentering society while bearing the stigma of addiction and a record of incarceration.

Which Contributes More to the Opioid Crisis: Hopelessness or Overprescribing?

Opioids Affect the Workplace

The headline of a story on the social network site, LinkedIn, reads, “The opioid crisis is creating a fresh hell for America’s employers.” The story talks about how deeply prescription and illicit painkillers, including fentanyl, have affected the workplace.

At an Ohio-based pottery company, the owner no longer requires applicants to take a drug test. “Now,” according to the article, “he skips the tests and finds it more efficient to flat-out ask applicants: ‘What are you on?’ ” At a dishware manufacturing company in West Virginia, more than half of the applicants fail drug tests or refuse to submit to them. The opioid epidemic is “having a devastating effect on companies — large and small — and their ability to stay competitive.”

How Canada’s Addiction Treatment Approach Compares to the U.S.

Canada and the United States are good neighbors, and share many values.

Although Canada and the United States are part of the North American family, and we feel a kinship to them in so many ways, we have different mindsets about some key issues. Specifically, we do not feel the same way about some healthcare issues.

Differing Treatments to Heroin Addiction

Canada seems to be more progressive than the U.S. and is quicker to see the needs that the U.S. denies — for example, the treatment of heroin addiction with heroin, and the potential benefits of medical marijuana.

Tough Times Feed America’s Opioid Epidemic: What You Need To Know

The Heroin Epidemic in Huntington, W. VA

CNN.com recently published a story called, “In America’s drug death capital: How heroin is scarring the next generation,” Wayne Drash and Max Blau, who reported the story, write intelligently about the heroin epidemic in Huntington, West Virginia. They tell the story the way it should be told.

This is The Reason Heroin Gave One Woman a Second Chance at Life

Detective Justin Albauer, who works for the Martin County Sheriff’s Department in Florida, pulled over Brianna Byrnes’s car in August 2015. That is a day that Byrnes will always remember.

A Second Chance At Life

In a poignant CNN story, we can read about what happened. Detective Albauer arrested Byrnes. She served time in jail, and a second chance at life emerged.

Brianna had two bags of heroin in her car when she was stopped. She says the heroin was there to allow her to get through the night without experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Brianna was like most people who become dependent on heroin, in that her main focus was to avoid withdrawal rather than to get high.

This is the Reason Heroin Addiction Requires Critical Analysis

President Obama stands ready to sign the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA). This bill will make available more treatments for opioid addiction and is intended to deter inappropriate prescribing of prescription opioids. As a recent Washington Post article points out, critics of CARA fear that this legislation could “cause prescription opioid users to switch to heroin, thereby feeding a second opioid epidemic.”

The Heroin Epidemic

I am also concerned about the heroin epidemic. But it’s important that we understand the actual reasons for the increase in heroin use. The Post article cited above, “The Real Reason That So Many More Americans Are Using Heroin” by Keith Humphreys, clarified some of the myths surrounding this issue.

This is Why People With Addiction Use Counterfeit Drugs

Prescription medications, by definition, must be prescribed by a doctor. Many people in pain are reporting that doctors are becoming increasingly wary of prescribing opioid medications. This leaves patients in the lurch.

People will often do almost anything to obtain medicines for their pain or to feed their addiction, even if it means buying counterfeit drugs.

To complicate matters, there are several types of counterfeit drugs. All of them are risky, if not deadly, to consume.

Who Is to Blame When Athletes Get Addicted to Heroin?

“I remember, the first pain pill they gave me, I felt really good. I actually felt very calm. I felt a sense of confidence that I never felt before. I knew it was going to be the start of something,” said a former high school football star to Soledad O’Brien on an episode of “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” called “Hooked” (HBO Sports), that originally aired in February of 2015.

This Is Why an Implant Cannot Stop Heroin Addiction

A recent The Daily Beast article asks the question: Can an implant stop heroin addiction?

Heroin Addiction Implant

The short answer is that, no, an implant cannot stop heroin addiction. The buprenorphine implant the article cites is only used once someone has already developed an opioid addiction.

Therefore, the implant isn’t preventing heroin addiction, it’s only treating it.

Other Implant Uses

However, the buprenorphine implant may make treating opioid addiction more successful. It may make it easier for those who could benefit from buprenorphine treatment to receive it, and it might improve compliance and utilization. This would be a good thing.

This is How Heroin and Prescription Opioids Are Different

Patrick Clarke, of Rockville, is correct in his letter to the Washington Post‘s editor.

Heroin is not the same thing as prescription opioids.

There’s a huge difference. I’m not talking only about the pharmacology. I’m talking about the reasons why people use heroin and prescription opioids.

Heroin and Opioids Are Different

Heroin is most commonly used to treat mental pain, while prescription opioids are intended to treat physical pain.

Yes, there are people who use heroin for physical pain. But they are not doing so under any medical supervision, and many heroin users usually can sustain that use only for short periods of time. Then, ultimately, they overdose and die.