Drug Abuse

Below is a free term papers summary of the paper "Drug Abuse." If you sign up, you can be reading the rest of this term papers in under two minutes. Registered users should login to view this term paper.

Term Paper Title	Drug Abuse
# of Words	1101
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.4

Drug Abuse

[Category]:

Miscellaneous

[Paper Title]:

Drug Abuse

[Text]:

Its a common misconception among many people that the harm reduction approach
to drug use encourages drug use and is not effective. The harm reduction
approach maintains that drug abuse is here to stay and society needs to “accept
the responsible use” of psychoactive substances. The U.S. drug policy should
incorporate harm reduction for the benefits of heroin addicts.

For more than thirty years, methadone has been used effectively as treatment
for heroin addicts. (Zickler) Unfortunately, for every ten heroin addicts, there
are only one or two methadone slots (Torr, 39). Methadone treatment has been
shown to be beneficial for addicts. Those that are untreated die at a rate ten
times more than those in methadone treatment do, (Zweben, 20). Some people go
into treatment simply to reduce the frequency and amount of their use; other
patients make a full commitment to a lifestyle change, (Zweben, 2). The goal of
opioid maintenance therapy is to get rid of drug craving and create homoeostatic
stability making the person able to focus on lifestyle changes, (Zweben, 3).
Heroin use declines slowly once patients go in to treatment over a period of
time (Zweben, 3). Its been found that 67% of patients who are in the treatment
for six months are less continued to still do heroin while only 8% of long term
patients still used, (Zweben, 3). This is a significant difference. It is
estimated that there are 810,000 heroin addicts in the United States; only
138,000 to 170,000 people receive methadone or Levo- Alpha-Acetyl-Methadone as a
part of an addiction treatment program (none, 4). There is about 900 methadone
treatment programs, including programs approved for Levo- Alpha- Acetyl-
Methadone treatment in the United States (none, 4). Methadone therapy helps keep
over 100,000 addicts off heroin, welfare, and on tax rolls as productive
citizens, Without these programs, these people would be back on the welfare and
back on drugs, (none, 3). In licensed clinics, methadone is given orally and
effects generally last 24 to 36 hours, (Zickler, 6). Many clinics administer
fixed doses instead of adjusted doses according to the needs of the patients. (Zickler,
6) Methadone has a little of injected heroin’s effect on mood and cognition
when taken orally. (Torr, 62) Methadone is to street heroin what nicotine
patches is to cigarettes-with an addiction benefit of legality. (Torr, 64) Some
people feel that t...

This is not the end of the termpaper! Register below to see the complete version of this term paper.

Membership Plans	Credit Card	Check

1 month membership

3 month membership (You Save 50%)

6 month membership (You Save 67%)

Copyright © 2002-2007 Mid Term Papers. All rights reserved. This term papers website is used for research purposes only.
If you have forgotten your username or password, please click here.
If you like to cancel your account, please click here.

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22