Introduction
What is heroin (Rudolph, Davis, Quan, Ha, Minh, Gregowski, & Go, 2012)? It is an opioid drug. It is gotten from morphine. It can be white or yellow. It is a natural drug that is obtained from the leaves of the poppy opium plant. It is grown in the Southwest and Southeast of Asia.
A person smokes, sniffs, injects or snorts heroin. Others mix the heroine with crack cocaine using speedballing process. The heroin rapidly enters the body-brain and merges with opioid cells that are located in the various parts of the body. These cells are mainly associated with pain, pleasure, breathing, sleeping and controlling of the heartbeat.
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Prevalence
Heroin abuse has been in the increase over the years. Most affected adults using the drug are aged between 25 to 50 years. The addicts use the drug together with other drugs. Excessive use of heroin causes thousands of deaths worldwide. Researchers have shown that most deaths in the southwest are as a result of the drug abuse. Young adults are at risk of using the drug, but research shows that the older adults use the heroin drug more (Parsons, VanOra, Missildine, Purcell, & Gómez, 2004)
Disclosure and disclosure experiences
Barriers to disclosure for people using heroin is salient for both men and women. Researchers argue that older adults use the drug and 9 out of 10 adults use it with at least one more pill. Most addicts use it to relieve pain and escape stress (Abell, Locke, Condor, Gibson, & Stevenson, 2006).
Individual barriers:
Personal struggles and fears
Escaping from stress, pain, and depression
Use it for health purposes
Fear of telling the family
Obstacles from others
Peer influence
Being abandoned or reported by the family
Fragile social circles
Barriers from the social world
It is a criminal offense
Unacceptable in the society
Lack of employment
Culture and period
Labeling
Stigmatization
Employment barriers, relational, socio-cultural, and psychological obstacles affect both adults of different genders. The addicts find it hard to secure employment because of their health problems, low economic status, criminal records, and stigmatization. Researchers found that most heroin addicts are unemployed, or do not look for jobs because of the factors mentioned (Salter, Go, Minh, Gregowski, Ha, Rudolph, & Quan, 2010). Criminal records limit the addicts to almost all the job opportunities. The employers cannot employ addicts because they lack trust in them. The addicts experience health problems that minimize their chances of being employed. The attitude and stigma from other working colleagues deter the addicts from looking for jobs. Most abusers are in fear of being known and associated with the police for fear of being jailed. The nation condemns heroin abusers and shows no support for them even after serving jail terms. The country is not willing to help them reform and look for jobs but instead condemns them. Most addicts belong to families that have problems, or they were neglected at some point in their lives.
Assessment
Researchers found that the effects of the heroin abuse are equal for both men and women. Adults who use the heroine also use marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin. A heroin overdose causes death for the users. The drug is more prevalent in the older adults than the young adults because they have used other drugs before. The heroine is thought to be riskier, and the young adults are in fear of using the drug. The state can control the use of heroine by safeguarding its borders. The healthcare systems ought not to prescribe heroin as a pain reliever because they already have enough painkillers (Mitchell, & Knowlton, 2009). Adults who inject the drug are at higher risk of contracting HIV and Hepatitis. These diseases are transmitted through blood fusion, and it happens when the user share the syringes as they inject the drug
References
Rudolph, A. E., Davis, W. W., Quan, V. M., Ha, T. V., Minh, N. L., Gregowski, A., ... & Go, V. (2012). Perceptions of community-and family-level injection drug user (IDU)-and HIV-related stigma, disclosure decisions and experiences with layered stigma among HIV-positive IDUs in Vietnam. AIDS Care , 24 (2), 239-244.
Parsons, J. T., VanOra, J., Missildine, W., Purcell, D. W., & Gómez, C. A. (2004). Positive and negative consequences of HIV disclosure among seropositive injection drug users. AIDS Education and Prevention , 16 (5), 459-475.
Abell, J., Locke, A., Condor, S., Gibson, S., & Stevenson, C. (2006). Trying similarity, doing difference: the role of interviewer self-disclosure in interview talk with young people. Qualitative Research , 6 (2), 221-244.
Salter, M. L., Go, V. F., Minh, N. L., Gregowski, A., Ha, T. V., Rudolph, A., ... & Quan, V. M. (2010). Influence of perceived secondary stigma and family on the response to HIV infection among injection drug users in Vietnam. AIDS Education and Prevention , 22 (6), 558-570.
Mitchell, M. M., & Knowlton, A. (2009). Stigma, disclosure, and depressive symptoms among informal caregivers of people living with HIV/AIDS. AIDS patient care and STDs , 23 (8), 611-617.
