It is a known fact that there exist a variety of illegal drugs being peddled in the streets of United States right now. There are marijuana, cocaine, crack and particularly heroin. According to study there are an estimated 2. 1 million “sometime” users of heroin in United States. Among this number approximately 208,000 are habitual users (“Statistics,” n. d. ). Meanwhile the population of past-month heroin users almost tripled from 68,000 in 1993 to about 208,000 in 1999. Furthermore, the 1999 study by National Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) posted that there were 149,000 new heroin users in the years 1998.
A portion of this number, about 80% were under the age of 26 (“Statistics,” n. d. ). Nevertheless, there are efforts and studies being made by psychologists and government agencies on how to get back from the fold of having a normal life these heroin addicts. It is a common knowledge that heroin addiction can cause havoc to ones family. This excluding the fact that ingestion of this illicit drug is done intravenously thus the user is prone to HIV infection and other related diseases.
This factor as a result in intravenous drug users (IVDUs) accounted for one third of all diagnosed AIDS cases according to the Community Epidemiology Work Group (1998 as cited in Downey, Helmus, and Schuster, 2000). Opiate addiction is considered as a significant health problem in America. A survey conducted by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (1997 as cited in Downey, Helmus, and Schuster, 2000) found out that there are about 2. 4 Americans who have tried heroin. The illicit use of heroin is associated with increased mortality and criminal behavior (Kokkevi et al.
, 1993 as cited in Downey, Helmus, and Schuster, 2000). Before combating the addiction of these junkies to heroin, first and foremost there should be basic knowledge of what does heroin is really like. In other words, there must be educated information that people who want to help these drug dependents should have. Unknown to many people, heroin is the “brand name” of diacetylmorphine HCL, chemical that is very close to morphine. Surprisingly, heroin has no effect per se to the body but only act as a transport for morphine and particularly codeine (Moraes, 2000).
Basically the major effect of this drugs is a feeling of pleasurable attitude and relaxation (Louria, 1968). Many psychologists who are trying to understand the psyche of morphine addicts or junkies states that before one becomes a heroin addict he first passes through a “gateway” of illicit drugs like marijuana. When one is through with marijuana then one proceeds to another illicit drug, particularly heroin, to become an addict. Yet, this issue is still being debated heatedly by great passion by researchers and scientists.
Nevertheless, the main problem that psychologists are busy nowadays is the search for the right and appropriate method in treating heroin dependency among addicts. There have been many attempts to combat this plague but the result and percentage of a rehabilitated heroin addicts is low compared to the expected outcome. There are treatments like Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) used to fight and win this war but this is not enough to totally bring back the drug dependent to a normal life he used to have. Below is a brief discussion of therapy called voucher-based reinforcement therapy or VBRT.