The Canyon

Heroin addiction is a problem that increases in scope in the United States every year. People are younger and younger at the time of their first use of the drug and the percentage of new clients at drug and alcohol addiction treatment centers claiming heroin as their drug of choice is on the rise as well.

Compared to the heroin addiction problem in Swansea in Britain, the United States has its H issues under control. A new film out that documents the heroin use and abuse in Swansea is blowing everyone away, both in Britain and on this side of the pond.

The documentary, called “Swansea Love Story,” claims that there has been a 180 percent increase in the number of heroin users and addicts in Swansea over the four years that the film was made. The largest portion of the population who become new users? Young people.

This number is in keeping with what the United States is seeing at least. A decade ago, the average age of first time use of heroin in the United States was 26. Now, it’s closer to 21. No longer is heroin something that only scary people use or full blown drug addicts with a long history of abuse. It’s now a drug of experimentation, often used in high school and college.

Says the filmmakers about their journey in making the film:

“It used to be one of the biggest ports in the world, but when Margaret Thatcher helped bring about the end of heavy industry in Britain, the social implications for places like Swansea were dire.

“Funnily enough, it was Thatcher who signed off on a program that meant heroin addicts would be given access to free, sterile needles. This was after she’d closed down the mines, docks, and factories. Mass unemployment and heroin addiction have always made fine bedfellows.

“And so we went to Swansea and lived with a gang of young addicts for a few months and found out just why addiction to heroin in Britain continues to rise at such an alarming rate.

“We found out about love, death, the organized sexual abuse of children and the collapse of the family. We stumbled into a race riot, met old sailors, and listened to a wonderful Welsh male choir. We learned about why dragging yourself out of addiction is such a struggle, especially if you’re a teenager who’s the product of two generations of heroin addicts and whose great-grandfathers were miners, sailors, and steelworkers.”

Want to check out a piece of Swansea Love Story and see for yourself? It’s on the VBS.TV broadband site and also highlighted on CNN.

If you or someone you love is addicted to heroin, help is available. You don’t have to try to go through heroin detox alone and then “white knuckle” it through early recovery and pray that you don’t relapse. Heroin addiction is a medical issue and it requires medical treatment. Contact The Canyon to learn more about heroin detox, heroin addiction treatment and all the options you have to start a new life without drugs.

When Jemima Phillips was appointed Royal Harpist by the Prince of Wales, it would have appeared that her life couldn’t have been more perfect. Behind the scenes, however, an out of control heroin addiction had her struggling to hold it all together.

Recently, Phillips was convicted for theft and the arrest revealed a life full of secrets kept from the public, including violent relationships and family tragedy that likely contributed to her abuse of heroin, according to the Daily Mail.

The Appearance of Perfection

As Royal Harpist, Phillips found herself playing at amazing venues. She even played at the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Camilla Parker Bowles. To anyone viewing her life from the outside, it appeared as if she had it all: 28 years old, a graduate of the Royal School of Music, master of her  £18,000 harp, and a position as the Royal Harpist.

After being convicted for handling stolen goods, Phillips confessed to a heroin addiction. Even without the conviction, the admission of heroin addiction pretty well secured the loss of her position of Royal Harpist and left her with a destroyed reputation. The long story of losing her brother during childhood, developing her musical gift to soothe her siblings (one of who suffered brain damaged, the other severely autistic), emotional alienation from her father, abusive boyfriends, abortions, and burglary only served to solidify her fate.

Heroin Rehab for Heroin Addiction

If she recognized that she was struggling with heroin addiction, why didn’t Phillips seek medical help at a heroin rehab? Simple: she was trying to keep the secret and if it got out, she feared the loss of her job and the possibility of being denied the ability to work in the United States. She attempted to get clean on her own and, occasionally, was successful for a few months until something would happen to trigger her and start it all again. She was trapped by the cycle of relapse in addiction and couldn’t break free before her choices under the influence revealed her to everyone far more dramatically than a stay in heroin rehab ever would have.

Heroin Addiction Treatment: Get Help Now

If you are struggling with heroin addiction, going through the cycle of attempting to get clean every few months only to relapse as soon as something stressful comes your way, then you need heroin addiction treatment. For those who are lucky enough to be completely free of withdrawal symptoms, an outpatient heroin addiction treatment program that focuses on the emotional and mental aspects of heroin addiction will assist you in learning how to make better choices and avoid relapse. Many will provide therapies that allow you to explore your drug history for clues as to why heroin  addiction became an issue for you.

For those who are currently experiencing withdrawal symptoms, a heroin detox will need to precede heroin addiction treatment either at an inpatient heroin rehab or separate from outpatient treatment.

Whichever style of heroin rehab you choose, don’t wait. Call Canyon for more information.

Heroin addiction is a rampant problem across the United States that doesn’t diminish with time. Determining how best to fight heroin addiction has focused mostly on criminalizing the behavior and providing treatment for those who need it. However, not enough is said about the nascence of heroin. Where does the sticky black tar come from that is so popular in the western United States? How does it get here and why is how the drug produced and distributed as big a problem as the addiction itself?

How Heroin is Produced
 
Heroin is created in a process by isolating and concentrating the morphine produced by opium poppy plants. By combining this substance in a “cooking” process of sorts, it can be reduced and boiled to create a white or yellow power. Although the process of production is complicated, it can be carried out in a home laboratory, which makes it particularly dangerous. If an untrained person were to add too much of a particular chemical or too little of another, they might produce heroin that has deadly side effects in the form of poisonous chemicals or dangerous purity levels.
 
The basic recipe follows like so: Opium is placed into a pot of very hot water, out of which are taken bits of flotsam and jetsam like twigs, leaves, etc. Chemicals are then added to the mixture to create an alkaline solution, which is then filtered through cloths and rinsed. After the addition of other chemicals and a heating and cooling process, the heroin is taken out, allowed to dry, and is then ready to ship to distributors.

The Dangers of Heroin Production
 
Although initial steps of the heroin creation process are easy to perform in a home setting or makeshift laboratory, later steps in the process can be fatally dangerous. This is because caustic chemicals are used in the solution, and all of them require large quantities and are dangerous to handle or even be around. The last step of the process is the most dangerous of all, as it involves flammable gases that are pressurized. If these gases ignite, the result is an explosion of devastating proportions, and certain destruction of the laboratory or residence used to create the drug. It also almost certainly spells the doom for the person who was mixing the chemicals.

Heroin Addiction, Heroin Distribution and War

It’s not just the United States who if waging a war against drugs. All around the world, every day, there are bloody battles over the distribution and production of heroin specifically. Afghanistan produces about 90 percent of the world’s supply of heroin and the countries along its major distribution routes to get to the west suffer the most in terms of heroin addicts per capita. The lives lost in service to trafficking the drugs across well protected borders are countless, nameless people who are desperate to make money for their families or find a better life for themselves.

Though heroin addiction is tragic in action, the tragedy begins long before you call your connection or head out to the corner to score. If you are addicted to heroin, getting help means that you not only save your own life but contribute to saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of others around the world.