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.

Tompkins jail in upstate New York is the only jail in the area to use meds to help heroin addicts kick dope while they are incarcerated, according to Stacey Shackford at The Ithaca Journal. They are using the most recently FDA-approved opiate addiction treatment, buprenorphine, to treat heroin addiction in jail.

Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit organization, has pointed to Tompkins’ buprenorphine program as a successful approach to the issue of drug addiction in jail. They say that more states would benefit from following suit.

Tompkins’ Drug Addiction Treatment Program

If Tompkins is any indication, treating heroin addiction while inmates are incarcerated not only decreases the number of problems and trafficking inside prison walls but also serves to cut back the recidivism rate when they are released.

Dr. John Bezirganian is Tompkins’ mental health director. He founded the facility’s opiate addiction treatment program a few years ago. He started by offering the buprenorphine program to inmates about 30 days before they were to be released; new inmates have the option of starting on buprenorphine when they arrive. When they go home, they have a 30-day supply of the drug in their pocket as well as a referral to a provider local to their hometown who will continue their care.

Buprenorphine and Opiate Addiction Treatment

Buprenorphine does not have the abuse potential that methadone does and is therefore a great candidate for opiate addiction treatment, especially in the jail system. You can’t get addicted to it and it has a ceiling on it so you can’t increase its effect by taking more. This also means that there are no documented cases of buprenorphine overdose, either, and if someone tries to abuse it by crushing it and shooting the drug, then they will immediately be thrown into opiate withdrawal due to a component of the drug inserted specifically to protect against such abuse. In the same way, it stays bound to opiate receptors for two or three days after use so relapse will be ineffective. In short, the only person who would want this drug is someone who wants to stave off withdrawal symptoms during opiate detox, not anyone who would want to get high.

What Do You Think?

Do you think that treating heroin and painkiller addiction in prisons and jails is an effective use of funds? Do you think the buprenorphine specifically is a positive choice for these programs? What do you think?

If you’re addicted to an opiate like heroin or prescription painkillers like Vicodin, codeine, OxyContin and others, the only way to break free from that addiction is an opiate detox and addiction treatment at an opiate rehab.

Heroin addiction, especially, has proven a difficult disease to break free from, especially when the drug is used intravenously. The problem is so rampant in this country, that researchers and medical professionals continue to study different ways to treat the problem in hopes of finding one that is effective across the board. We’ve talked about heroin addiction treatment using methadone, Suboxone and heroin itself, but here’s another idea that’s being debated among researchers: heroin addiction treatment using Naltrexone implants.

How Naltrexone Can Treat Heroin Addiction

The claims for Naltrexone as an effective heroin addiction treatment measure include the following:

* An opiate antagonist
* Removes opiate cravings
* Reverses physiological addiction
* Repairs damaged opiate receptors over time to treat physiological addiction
* Future relapses on heroin provide no high

Problems With Naltrexone as a Heroin Addiction Treatment

If all that is true, then why haven’t people been using Naltrexone to kick heroin since all this was discovered in the ‘70s? Apparently, there are a number of problems with the drug as well. First of all, researchers say that it’s hard to make someone take the pill every day. For some reason, they haven’t considered or won’t consider distributing it the way they distribute methadone: at a clinic, under supervision on a daily basis. The other issue is that though it may block the effects of heroin when taken regularly and as prescribed, there are bad relapse issues when you take Naltrexone some of the time and heroin some of the time and try to mix the two haphazardly. The result can mean nasty withdrawal symptoms.

Naltrexone Implant Therapy: An Australian Solution to Heroin Addiction

So here’s the big idea, the one they’re testing in Australia as a possible way to take advantage of Naltrexone’s effect on heroin addiction and circumvent the issues that have come up in the past with the pill form: an implant. The guy who developed the idea and manufactures the Naltrexone implant is Dr. George O’Neil. The implant is put under the skin where it delivers a controlled dose of Naltrexone reliably and safely. The current implant works for up to six months but a longer lasting implant is in development.

Beware of imitators, however. Apparently, there are inferior versions floating around that are made more cheaply and can be deadly. The O’Neil implant is the only one that has been called 100 percent safe.

What Do You Think About Naltrexone for Heroin Addiction Treatment?

Is this a good idea? Should we try it in the United States? Do you foresee any possible issues? Is it worth the time and financial investment to explore a new heroin-specific addiction treatment when we have a number of medications available for heroin detox and rehab?

Yes. It’s not just a salacious headline. There has actually been an incident recently that has managed to combine the phrases ‘heroin addiction’ and ‘cat killing’ in the same story. And even blame the latter on the former.

The ‘Heroin Addictions Kills Cats’ Story

Okay, it wasn’t that the cat was addicted to heroin but that a guy named Luigi Epifania who was a junky got it into his head that he would not only stomp a neighborhood cat to death (incidentally, a cat named Nunu) but also his burn his body and through the remains into an apartment window. The guy’s defense, according to his lawyer, was that he was strung out at the time.

Sentencing for Heroin Induced Cat Killing

He was sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison. With credit for time served, a mind boggling 437 days that he spent locked up awaiting trial. But the thing is, there was something of a media frenzy surrounding the fate of the 25-year-old Epifania. Apparently, five cat fans wrote letters to the presiding judge, Superior Court Judge Charles T. Spurlock, asking that Epifania be sentenced with the maximum for such an offense: five years.

Their argument? Clearly, he’s disturbed and it won’t be long before he turns his malice on a human victim. One person suggests that he’s a burgeoning serial killer. Now, I’ve heard stories about serial killers who, during their childhoods, tortured animals but my understanding is that by the time they hit 25, they were pretty much already in the big leagues.

Says Epifania’s lawyer: “The media is here looking for a monster. He is not a monster.” He also said that he had fed the cat in the past and that the only evidence the cops had on him was a coerced, taped confession.

The fact that he set a fire that caused property damage seemed to be an addendum to the issue of the cat.

The judge said, “Drugs are his problem. He’s got a problem and he’s got to address it. He’s got to stay clean.”

The Really Crazy Thing About This

It seems that cat killing isn’t the only thing that Epifania got busted for. A few days after the cat (it looks like the doom predictors were right), he attacked a man with a knife and a hot frying pan. For this, guess what he got! Probation and mandatory attendance at NA or AA meetings and drug testing. So to recap for those of you still with me: he kills a cat and gets 2 ½ years in prison. He attacks a man with not one but two deadly weapons and gets probation and 12-steps. Yes.

I think that this is just insane. What do you think? Was the sentencing fair? Do you think Epifania is a serial killer in training? Would you want him to move in next door to you when he gets out of prison? Tell me what you think!

Heroin Prescription for Heroin Addiction Treatment

Heroin Prescriptions for Heroin Addiction Treatment is More Than Just a Swiss Study

It’s a Swiss institution. The voters just gave permanent approval on the legalized heroin program that they’ve been testing since 1994. It has grown to include about 24 centers serving about 1300 addicts who have not succeeded in more traditional therapies and at the same time decreased the amount of using that was happening out in the open at public parks that used to be so common.

How Heroin Prescriptions for Heroin Addiction Treatment Works in Switzerland

Every day, twice a day, the addict can come into the clinic for a strictly measured dose and take it there in the clinic supervised by a nurse. There are social workers and psychiatrists available for consultation, and the cost of all this is covered by the mandatory health insurance required for all Swiss citizens.

Who Else is Doing Heroin Prescriptions for Heroin Addiction Treatment?

The Netherlands followed Switzerland’s example with a similar program that serves about 600 addicts currently. Australia and Canada have implemented studies to see if it will work for them.

Why Isn’t the United States Doing Heroin Prescriptions for Heroin Addiction Treatment?

The United States, not surprisingly, is not interested in this program. They say that it is a step toward drug legalization. They say that it could have the effect of increasing drug abuse rather than decreasing it. Yet no one seems to notice that our own approach—imprisonment—means not only an increase in drug abuse but an increase in other crimes as well since they’re basically sending people to an all expenses paid ‘how to rob people and hustle money through crime’ conference. And then wondering why they keep coming back.

Whether or not you end up in jail or prison, those who are struggling with heroin addiction and likely no longer have a job or any resources to speak of, have few opportunities to get meaningful treatment. And the programs inside are being cut as well.

So if imprisonment isn’t working and heroin prescriptions for heroin addiction treatment isn’t an option, it stands to reason that the best option is still inpatient or outpatient heroin rehab at a drug rehab facility like The Canyon.

I’m not sure what boggles the mind more about this story: the fact that poachers got an elephant strung out on dope or that the elephant was subsequently put through a three-year opiate detox so that he could get better.

Um, what.

A Tough Life for an Elephant

According to Weird Asia News, “An Asian elephant that was fed bananas laced with heroin by cruel smugglers to keep him under control has been put through a detox program by Chinese vets in Beijing.”

They’re calling the elephant Big Brother, and in his four-year long life, he’s been illegally captured and given heroin to subdue him and keep him under control. When the poachers who stole were arrested, the police wanted to free Big Brother, but quickly noticed that something wasn’t quite right. That’s right: he was going through heroin detox and having some severe withdrawal symptoms. So the cops sent him to a wild animal protection center and it was there that he received a methadone maintenance treatment that was steadily decreased over time.

What Methadone Maintenance for an Elephant Looks Like

Apparently, it comes in the form of five mega-shots of methadone a day that are each five times the maximum human dose. And it lasts for three years. I’m not sure where the protocol came from on this, if this is a relatively common occurrence or what (it’s been reported that he had three elephant friends with him at elephant drug rehab who are also doing well), but they’ve got it down to a science now. Over time, his methadone dose was reduced gradually and he seems to be doing fine. He’s scheduled to move to a wildlife park in Kunming where he will live out his days unshackled by heroin addiction.

Why Drug Rehab for Junkie Elephants?

Well, drug rehab likely would not have been the destination for almost any other animal or species. But Big Brother is an Asian elephants, which are currently classified as endangered by the IUCN. Had he been a regular old elephant, he might have been sent to the gas chamber instead. Or shot. Or whatever they do to large animals who are severely ill. But then again, if he’d been an ordinary elephant, the poachers might have left him alone and never fed him bananas spiked with dope.

How often do you think this happens? What do you think of what must be an exorbitantly expensive treatment for an animal when people are dying from the same disease all over the world? A justified expense, or no?

Heroin Prescription for Heroin Addiction Treatment

Um… what? Though I’m pretty sure that in England it is actually legal to prescribe heroin in certain cases of pain management, I’m not sure how often that actually happens (do they prescribe clean needles, too? And cookers? What about cottons and clean waters?) And where that seems counterintuitive considering the worldwide problem that is heroin addiction, starting with the nature of the business of heroin production, is apparently under consideration in Canada. It seems our neighbor to the north is considering prescribing heroin to treat heroin addiction.

There Was a Three-Year Study on Heroin Prescription for Heroin Addiction Treatment

Yes, a three-year, government-funded study on the efficacy of prescribing pharmaceutical grade heroin to heroin addicts. The results are being called “remarkable.”

Dr. Martin Schechter was the North American Opiate Medication Initiative, or NAOMI, principal investigator in the study. He says, “Heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) is very safe when done properly. Our results show it to be very effective.”

The Argument Against Heroin Prescription for Heroin Addiction Treatment

Well, can you really predict the outcome of fighting fire with fire? And then there’s the idea that it’s a step toward legalizing the drug, which many are against. Many simply don’t like the idea that their tax dollars would go to maintain a heroin addicts addiction even though far more tax dollars are spent cleaning up the damage caused by heroin addiction. Still others argue against heroin addiction clinics and the like for the same reason that they don’t want methadone clinics in their neighborhood. There’s also the idea that acknowledging the problem somehow condones it.

The Argument For Heroin Prescription for Heroin Addiction Treatment

Why not? For many who have repeatedly tried and failed to kick using the more traditional methods, this could work. And if the goal isn’t necessarily abstinence but harm reduction, it certainly is a lot less expensive to provide this kind of regular upkeep and treatment—ostensibly, maintaining someone’s addiction—rather than pay for the damage due to criminal activity or the medical bills of the uninsured who overdose on non-pharmaceutical grade heroin in the street.

Then there’s the argument of quality of living. When you’re strung out on heroin, your entire focus is on your next dose. When you regulate your addiction and get it under control with methadone or, like this research shows, with three regular doses of heroin each day, then you are free to think about other things. People who never have before were getting and holding down part time jobs while on this study. They were having viable and functioning friendships and relationships with other people that didn’t center around heroin addiction. It seemed to function much like methadone in freeing the person from their mental—if not physical and emotional—attachment to their addiction.

What Do You Think of Heroin for Heroin Addiction Treatment?

Do you think it’s on the same par as methadone? Or do you think that it doesn’t make sense at all?