Heroin in the Suburbs

Heroin in the Suburbs

Illegal drugs are chemical or other substances that are ingested to create a mind-altering affect. People use illegal drug for a variety of reasons. There are many different types of drugs out there like hallucinogens, cannabis, narcotics, and depressants (just to name a few). Although there are a number of illegal drugs out there, a narcotic called heroin is one of the more serious problems in American suburbs.

Heroin was thought to be safe and non-addictive when it was first introduced in 1898 as a cough medicine. It was then later used to save people from morphine and opium addictions (Silverstein 54). Eventually, people started to realize that heroin was twice as addictive as the most powerful morphine. Just a couple years later, laws were passes against the highly addictive heroin, which made it an illegal drug.

Heroin is considered a narcotic because it is a drug that contains opium. It is produced from an Asian poppy plant and usually appears as a white or brown powder. Some of the most common street names referring to heroin include: "smack", "dope", "skag", "horse", "H", and "junk". Even though injecting the drug is the most popular way to use it, more and more cases of snorting and smoking it are coming about (Silverstein 13). A lot of people use heroin to fit in, relieve stress and emotional problems, experiment, and to escape from the world around them.

When on heroin, people feel a pleasurable high because it blocks the pain receptors in the spine and the brain. But with this pleasurable high, comes some side-affects. Heroin side-affects can be as minor as flu-like symptoms, or as major as full out addiction and total dependence for the drug. It is the most addicting drug being used today. "All it takes is one time and you are hooked. Once you begin, it is very hard to stop; it becomes a lifestyle." (Silverstein 59).

The drug is becoming problem in suburban areas. Anyone can find it on the streets, in the best and worst areas. Over the years, use of heroin in the suburbs has been growing. By 1971, heroin became the most popular illicit drug among young people. It is used all over, by all different types of people, but is predominantly used my middle-class and upper-class young white people (Ashton 66). A few years back, the inner cities was the spot for heroin users. Now, the illegal drug is rapidly making it's was up to the country's suburbs. So, some people ask what area has the most heroin users: the inner cities or suburbs? The only reliable sources to find out that information is, free clinics, police reports, and institutions that heroin users turn to when they find out that they are hooked. These institutions and clinics report the heroin addictions that rapidly rise in certain neighborhoods.

A nation-wide study shows that heroin, which has been a longtime problem in America's inner-cities, is becoming a very big problem in suburban areas. In big areas like Atlanta,