Kentucky has been facing an epidemic that reflects the challenges in many areas of the United States. Heroin use is the highest it has been in 20 years, with at least one million users in the U.S. and fatality rates five times as high as they were in the year 2000.
The problem is leaving many lawmakers, public health advocates, and families frustrated at the lack of progress we’ve made, despite the fact that we are throwing more resources at fixing it. Kentucky is even allocating $15.7 million to help heroin users quit their habit.
How Did We Get Here?
Many experts agree that the rise in heroin use actually stems from our efforts to stop another problem – prescription painkiller abuse. As the state cracked down on opioid abuse, addicts looked to other, more affordable alternatives, and they found one such alternative in the form of heroin.
Heroin is cheaper than prescription painkillers.
Since the demand for the drug has picked up, supply has also risen, meaning that the drug is more widely available than it was in years before. While prescription drug abuse also led to many serious problems in Kentucky, heroin is proving to be a problem that might exceed the initial prescription painkiller conundrum. That is, in large part, because heroin is more lethal and is derived from completely illegal sources.
Painkillers were manufactured primarily by pharmaceutical companies. The dosage of a given pill is known by the user. In contrast, heroin is not manufactured in a regulated environment; rather, it is made illegally with no oversight as to the quality or safety of the product. Buyers don’t know how strong the substance will be until they try it, which could prove to be a fatal experiment for some users.
We Are Not Treating Addicts Effectively
In addition to the challenges mentioned above, the situation could be made worse by the way we treat drug users. An increasing body of research is suggesting that people turn to drug use when their lives are broken at some level, and there is a growing connection between depression and substance abuse. When someone becomes addicted, it is often because they are disconnected from their lives.
In that isolation, they turn to drugs to fill the void.
The way we treat addicts – arresting them, imprisoning them, making it more difficult to get jobs – we further isolate them from the things that they must connect with in order to overcome an addiction. We also encourage complete abstinence from drug use, even though evidence indicates that drug treatment programs are far more effective than programs that dismiss drug treatment in favor of abstinence-only programs.
One of the best resources for learning more about the challenges facing heroin addicts in Kentucky is a piece from the Huffington Post. The article is one of the most comprehensive ever done on this issue.
Our laws and punishments for drug users are well-intentioned, but have thus far proven to be ineffective in addressing the problem. It’s clear that we have to change the way we think about drug use and drug users to find better solutions to stop the heroin epidemic in Kentucky.
If you (or a loved one) have been arrested in Kentucky or in the Lexington area in particular, call my office at (859) 685-1055 for a free consultation. Our lawyers specialize in helping defendants fight back on assault charges, misdemeanors, domestic violence, property crimes, drug charges and more, call today.