Give Addicts Their Fix

Give Addicts Their Fix

The drug overdose epidemic is one that is sweeping over our country and many others. Over the past few years overdose rates in some cases have tripled. Many countries have resorted to punishment and forced rehab to try and clean up their streets and reduce crime and death rates, but the outcomes don’t seem to be working. We need to try something new. Canada has taken a different approach, Through a thoroughly selected program 26 people have been receiving drugs from the government as a way to help them. This program (called Insite) lets addicts go to special medical popups that will provide them with clean and sterilized needles as well as, to some, the heroin dose they crave. This program has decreased the overdoses in the Vancouver area as well as crime rates.

The Insight program is not meant to enable addicts but instead hopefully stop them from resorting to street drugs and street crimes just to get a high. “Street drugs” are drugs that are sold illegally on the streets. Street drugs often are laced with other synthetic opioids or chemicals such as fentanyl.“When you use street or club drugs, you’re taking a lot of risks. The drugs are dangerous, and usually there’s no way to know how strong they are or what else may be in them”, As WebMD states in, “Street Drugs: Know the Facts and Risks”. In that article as well they speak about how “It’s even more unsafe to use them along with other substances like alcohol and marijuana.”  A lot of addicts resort to “getting crossed” which is the use of 2 drugs at once in order to gain the satisfaction that they first got when starting their drug of choice. This increases the risks of overdose as well as many other health issues.

Addicts when coming down from a high or are going through withdrawal they crave the need for more. In the article “Drug use changes the brain over time” by the Genetic Science Learning Center, “ after the user has “come down,” they will need more of the drug next time they want to get high.” Addicts will result in stealing from family or pickpocketing on the street, they also will buy drugs that are less pure just because it’s cheaper and what they can afford. This is the behavior that Vancouver is trying to prevent, and succeeding in doing, and the rest of us should follow in their footsteps.

From a Neurological standpoint of the brain, when doing a drug your brain is getting an immediate release of high dopamine. Over time your dopamine receptors in your synapse begin to accommodate for the drug and start altering around it to compensate for the amount of dopamine it creates leaving you with even less dopamine when you’re not high then your originally started with. The Pathways connected to the synapse also get rewired during this period. According to, “Drug Use Changes The Brain Over Time” by the Genetic Science Learning center, “Over time, brain regions responsible for judgment, decision-making, learning, and memory begin to physically change, making certain behaviors “hard-wired.”.” These addicts can no longer make clear judgments and justify their crimes. These addicts aren’t hard criminals, they just don’t know the basis of reality anymore. By sustaining these addicts with their choice drug we can help redirect their focus from finding their next fix to perhaps finding a job.

Rehab is often the most pushed upon treatment for addicts. Forced rehab along with voluntary do not have the best rates when it comes to staying sober. In a study conducted called, ”Factors associated with relapse into drug use among male and female attendees of a three-month drug detoxification–rehabilitation programme” is a study done by The Harm Reduction Journal. Harm reduction is an effort to reduce negative outcomes through practices or public health policies in order to reduce crime or negative human behaviors. In this study they found that the “Median times to relapse were 45 days for men and 20 days for women. Most of the relapses occurred during the first 30 days after discharge in both sexes.” This study also found that 71.9% of women relapsed versus 54.5% males. More than half of both men and women found that this program was unhelpful, yet it’s still the first thing we offer to addicts. It’s near to impossible to help and end everyone’s addiction, but harm reduction offers us the ability to at least help the addicts’ addictions we can’t end.

Not only does Harm Reduction help the addicts addictions we can’t end, but it also lessons the harm of the rippled issues caused by addicts. These include, pit picking, overdose, theft, as well as issues like overcrowded emergency rooms, courts, and medical intervention that would be wasted. All of these issues could be reduced through this Harm reduction program.

Rehab is not effective for most but it becomes even less effective when we take addicts off the streets, get them clean, and then stick them right back on the street. Addicts who are admitted to rehabs from loving families or homes have a much higher success rate. Addicts who live on the street more often than not are on drugs because of their living conditions. From the same study done by The Harm Reduction Journal they found, ”For both male and female subjects the findings highlight the importance of stable living conditions. Additionally, female PWUDs need gender-sensitive services and active efforts to refer them for opioid substitution therapy.” Drugs are the only way that addicts know how to cope and once they are put back out on the street they are going to need to cope again and we have the opportunity to help them cope.

When understanding the jump to giving addicts drugs instead of rehab, we have to understand that this program will not be offered to just anyone who wants clean drugs. There are qualifications that must be met in order to get into a program like this. Some of those include: Multiple attempts and rehab, Continuous effort to kick addiction, unstable living conditions, and you must be a steady user or addict. This program is not created to give drugs out to everyone or people who want to try for the first time. ANd just like the benefits from Harm reduction, this program would give us those results.

Helping addicts does not have to be a one solution problem, some addicts can benefit from rehab and that may be the best choice for them but others need the drugs, they are completely dependent, and it makes their lifestyle more bearable. Unless we can get every homeless addict off the street and into a home then we should be using our medical resources to give them pure safe and medically administered drugs.

References

Maehira, Y., Chowdhury, E.I., Reza, M. et al. Factors associated with relapse into drug use among male and female attendees of a three-month drug detoxification–rehabilitation programme in Dhaka, Bangladesh: a prospective cohort study. Harm Reduct J 10, 14 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7517-10-14

Genetic Science Learning Center. (2013, August 30) Drug Use Changes the Brain Over Time. Retrieved April 02, 2023, from https://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/brainchange

Science Direct (Volume 16, Issue 4, April 2016, Pages 1323-1327) R.A. Rudd, N. Aleshire, J.E. Zibbell, R. Matthew Gladden https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1600613522008991

Street Drugs: Know the Facts and Risks, WebMD Editorial Contributors (March 13 2023)https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/street-drugs-risks