Midterm Presentation

Opium and heroin have a long history, with opium initially used for healing in China before becoming a recreational drug. The British East Indian Company smuggled opium into China, leading to conflict and the opium wars. In America, opium addiction became an issue during the Civil War. Heroin, a potent form of opium, was used to combat addiction to other substances but became a serious problem during the Vietnam War. Both opioids and heroin are highly addictive. Pennsylvania has steep consequences for heroin and opioid offenses, with jail time and fines for possession and intent to distribute. The heroin and opioid epidemic is a major concern in Pennsylvania, with around 14 deaths per day from overdose. Prolonged use of heroin and opium can lead to health issues such as depression, liver disease, and brain damage. Governor Tom Wolf aims to combat the crisis through prevention, rescue, treatment, supportive services, and sustainability. Policies in Pennsylvania include a Prescription Dr Hello, my name is Alicia Undercuffler and today I will be talking about opium and heroin. So brief outline for this is going to be the background of opium and heroin, offenses for heroin and opium, some research questions as well as the current event and how law enforcement handles this epidemic. So brief background for opium. Opium seeds were initially used for healing purposes in China but quickly turned into something that was smoked for recreational purposes. China quickly outlawed the drug in 1729 and the punishment for getting caught with the drug was death by strangulation or decapitation. However, the British East Indian Company encouraged the distribution of opium and found numerous ways to smuggle it across the Chinese border. Over the next 120 years, conflict grew between these two countries and the opium wars began, resulting in a British victory. Opium in America became a big issue after Frederick Sumtner created a more potent and pure version which is now called morphine. The drug was commonly used during the Civil War to alleviate pain but many soldiers became addicted to opium and it was even referred to as the soldier's disease. Eventually addiction rates began to rise so drastically that in 1914, the US passed our first law against opium called the Harrison Narcotic Act which regulated the production and importation of opium. Additionally, heroin in the US was initially used as a cough suppressant and surprisingly enough it was used to combat addiction to other substances. Heroin however is one of the strongest drugs due to its ability to alter the brain. Heroin became a serious issue for Americans during the Vietnam War due to soldiers using it in combat to combat the stressors of war and around 7% of all soldiers who returned home remained addicted to heroin. Additionally, smoking heroin became extremely popular in the US during the mid-1980s due to people being afraid of needles during the AIDS epidemic. Both opioids and heroin attempt to alleviate pain and become extremely addictive. The image shows here talks about how those who abuse substances such as alcohol, marijuana, cocaine or painkillers are more likely to get addicted to heroin and use other substances accompanied with heroin. Up next we're going to talk about the offenses for heroin use. So Pennsylvania aims to deter the use of drugs by setting steep consequences for using heroin. In PA, the misdemeanor offense for possession of heroin for a first-time offender can include facing a year of jail time or a $5,000 fine. However this is only the misdemeanor offense. The felony charge is much steeper. The first offense for intent to distribute is 15 years in jail and facing a minimum fine of $250,000 and for repeat offenders the punishment doubles. Now for opioid offenses. For a misdemeanor charge in Pennsylvania for possession of 2 to 10 grams is 1 to 2 years jail time and a $5,000 fine which is pretty similar to the punishment for heroin. However it is different to heroin in regards that if opioid is considered a Schedule I or Schedule II drug it changes the offense. A felony fine in Pennsylvania for opioid use is 15 years jail time and a $25,000 fine. So in most regards the punishments are almost identical except for heroin versus opium due to the addictive qualities for both and how they both are high punishments for deterrence purposes. Now as far as my research question goes, I tried to tie them as much to my current event as possible. It is well known that heroin and opioid crisis is getting worse and worse so I wanted to target some questions that can paint the picture as to how bad the crisis truly is. So I asked what does the drug epidemic look like in Pennsylvania and what are the long-term effects of heroin and opium? For my current event I chose to tackle the heroin and opioid epidemic in Pennsylvania. The heroin and opioid epidemic is the largest public health and safety concern facing Pennsylvania. Around 14 people die every single day in PA from overdose of heroin or opioids and in 2021, 5,168 people died of drug overdose related to heroin and opium. Some of the health effects of prolonged heroin and opium use are depression, liver disease, heart disease, hepatitis C through the sharing of needles, HIV again through the sharing of needles and brain damage and death caused by overdose. Governor Tom Wolf has a more restorative view on drug policies in Pennsylvania. Instead of trying to put policies into place that punish those who have an addiction, he would rather implement programs that help combat the crisis. He sets a plan into motion on how to combat the drug addiction crisis in PA. They are as follows. His first goal is prevention through reduce of substance misuse through education, limiting availability of substances and combating stigma. The second goal is rescue, establish sustainable methods to provide life-saving measures that increase access to preventative harm measurements. His third goal is treatment, promote access to treatment by reducing barriers for individuals and supporting the professionals who will treat them with their substance use disorder. The fourth goal, promote supportive services for individuals in recovery. And the last is sustainability, implement long-lasting policies and regulations to support the prevention of drug use and include and increase treatment and recovery efforts. Next is the policies used to address the epidemic. Pennsylvania has been trying to combat the opium and heroin epidemic for more to be a more humanistic approach. One policy put into place was the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, which focused on limiting access and introduction to opioids. The program starts by limiting access to opioids by having places such as dentist offices or the doctor's office limiting the prescribing of opioids, as well as safe prescribing for youth and adolescents and being cautious that prescribing at such a young age can create issues long-term. The goal is to prevent any introduction to opioids unless it's a last resort in recognizing how addictive they are. The thought behind this is there are so many painkillers that are far less addictive and we should look into using them first to monitor the pain before resorting to opioids. Additionally, another method WOLF tends to implement is to improve curriculum in both schools and universities across PA in aims of reduction, in aims to reduce the use of drug abuse through knowledge. The thought is if individuals are better educated in the effects of opioids and heroin, a deterrence effect will be created. And if knowledge is increased at the university level, doctors will become more educated on the risk of prescribing opioids and to look into safer alternatives. Lastly, on the methods WOLF is implementing is a worn handoff approach. And this refers to a process in which drug overdose patients are taken directly from the hospital and placed into drug treatment providers. He is allotting for state funding to be used to help individuals who struggle with drug abuse and find themselves in the hospital to receive the treatment that they need at a reduced cost. This program aims at helping opioid and heroin abusers and allows them the opportunity to receive the treatment that they need to get their lives back on track. Next step is law enforcement's role. In Pennsylvania, the state police decided to take a direct approach to the opioid and heroin epidemic by getting drugs off the street. Pennsylvania is a hub for drug trafficking. And quoted directly from the state police website, they said that they announced troopers seized more than 108 pounds of cocaine, 144 pounds of methamphetamines, 85 pounds of fentanyl, and over 65,000 pills of assorted narcotics and other illicit drugs in the third quarter of 2022. They also collected 698 pounds of prescription and other medications as part of a drug take-in program during the third quarter. There are 65 drug take-back boxes at state police stations throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania providing a safe way to dispose of unused and unwanted medications 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The state police want to limit the amount of drugs on the street and for an opioid epidemic to take in the drugs that were prescribed but not used. They limit the access of opioids circulating around and eliminate some of the temptations of knowing that they are in one's home. This direct approach of seizing drugs eliminates the risk of exposure on the streets as well as developing a program to help eliminate the prescription drugs users have access to. So overall, the opioid and heroin epidemic is something that is not going to go away overnight. However, with the right steps taken, hopefully we can not only help those who are struggling with addiction gain access to the resources that they need but also set in place programs to help eliminate access to these drugs. Hopefully with these steps in motion, we can start to make a positive impact on the lives of those who have been addicted by this epidemic.