HEP 251 Discussion 3 Hooked AZ

How did the Hooked Arizona documentary challenge your ideas of drugs users and addicts? It honestly made me up open up and be more sensitive to the idea of what a drug addiction is. My father had a drug addiction when he passed away. Once he passed away, the only thing that kept running across my mind was what could I have done to get him help? Why didn’t I take him to get the help he needed? Why weren’t me or siblings enough to make him quit? Those questions will always run across my mind because they I never had the courage to ask him, but now I have a better understanding that someone who has an addiction doesn’t want to have an addiction. It’s something they can’t control. Me asking or taking my father to get help would not cure him. Overcoming an addiction is something that the addict has to overcome and it’s a daily fight.

Why do you think Arizona is seeing a spike in young drug users? For one, I think it may be because of the Cartel and the border being so close to Arizona. Drug smugglers are sneaking in and out. Social Influences could also be another major factor that comes into play. If I didn’t have to the correct upbringing and knowledge of right and wrong was, I could have been easily influenced by one addict explaining her first experience getting high. She explained it as something magical. By listening to her explain her first high, she probably influenced a lot of other young children/adults.

Experts say painkillers can lead to heroin use. Expand on this viewpoint. I agree 100% as stated in the documentary; it starts off as someone being on pain killers from an injury and they now feel like they can function without it. Pain killers are much more expensive to come by, so they seek a cheaper drug that can match their high or get them a better high. It’s cheaper and they are not looking at the long-term affect or even considering their actions as an addiction until it’s too late.

Why do you think Arizona is seeing a spike in young drug users?

There are various factors that can be estimated to be the increasing number of young drug users in Arizona. One of the issues includes the availability of drugs. Arizona is close to Mexico, one of the countries across the globe that is known for drugs such as cocaine. Drug cartels from Mexico find their market in the United States, and mostly regions where adolescents and young people are in huge numbers. Young people are ready markets for drug shipments smuggled into the United States, and Arizona youths are just victims of drug trafficking. Another reason can be attributed to the association of adolescents and young peers with delinquent or substance-using peers. Associating with a bad company always makes a person susceptible, and this can be the case for many young people in Arizona. Finally, a family history of substance abuse can be another major reason. Most parents are addicts, and thus, predispose a child to drugs and substance use at an early age. Based on this, when these children grow up, they are already addicts.

Experts say painkillers can lead to heroin use. Expand on this viewpoint.

Painkillers such as opioids trigger the release of endorphins, your brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters. Endorphins muffle your perception of pain and boost feelings of pleasure, creating a temporary but powerful sense of well-being. When an opioid dose wears off, you may find yourself wanting those good feelings back, as soon as possible. This is the first milestone on the path toward potential addiction. Heroin functions in the same way, increasing a sense of well-being in the victim when used, which slowly wears off after some time. A person can therefore continue taking heroin to replenish the good feeling, and this goes on and on, leading to addiction. Since most painkillers such as codeine and morphine are made from heroin, a person has a high chance of becoming an addict from pain prescriptions, and end up using heroin to replace the prescriptions.