Marin was just a regular kid. She was beautiful, she was liked, she played sports. Everything appeared to be normal. Her parents had no Idea her self-esteem was low, how could they? Everything seemed fine. “She had a smile that would light up a room”, her mom Heidi Riggs says as she tells Marin’s story, one of Heroin addiction. T.J. and Mrs. Riggs noticed things disappearing from the house, Spoons and Money would disappear. They confronted her about the missing money. But it wasn’t until she crashed the car that her parents learned of her addiction to Heroin. She was charged and arrested. She went to rehab twice only to relapsed after each time. She relapsed after being sober every time when finally, her dad found her in the bathroom, she was dead, she was only twenty years old. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdj65B1lxVc).
This video is persuading or conveying to us what the Riggs went through. This “Persuasion” is mostly being done emotionally or through Pathos. “The evocation of emotion to an audience is Pathos”, from the Greek for emotion or suffering (From critical thinking to argument 124). In other words, appealing to emotion is to persuade using pathos. The Riggs are very emotional in this depiction, as they should be having just lost a daughter to Heroin addiction. This video does incorporate Ethos and Logos also but mostly this is emotional.
By the late 1990’s the mortality rate of Heroin addicts skyrocketed to 20 times that of the rest of the population (drugfreeworld.org). From 1999 to 2017 the number of deaths from heroin overdose has increased by seven times. In 2017 alone 15,482 people died from a Heroin overdose and between 2010 and 2017 the rate of overdose deaths caused by heroin increased by almost 400%. (cdc.gov). Today this drug is still a major concern.
In the late 1800’s Bayer pharmaceutical company in Germany first manufactured Heroin. This killer drug was marketed as a T.B. treatment and a remedy for morphine addiction. In the late 1850’s Opium addiction was a major problem in the United States, Morphine was the solution. Morphine provided Opium addicts with a less potent and supposedly non-addictive substitute. Soon Morphine addiction became a bigger problem than the one it was supposed to remedy. Since that worked so well, a remedy for Morphine addiction was rendered, this remedy was Heroin (drugfreeworld.org). This drug soon proved to be even more addictive than morphine and is well known on the streets today as Big h, H, Junk, Skag, Horse, Smack, Thunder, Hell dust, Nose drops, etc. To remedy this problem, Methadone was introduced. First developed in 1937 by German scientists searching for a surgical pain killer and in 1947 was exported to the U.S. with the trade name “Dolophine”, soon renamed Methadone. This drug proved to be widely used as a treatment for Heroin addiction and once again proved to be more addictive than that which it was thought to remedy.
Addiction is a condition in which a person engages in the use of a substance or behavior in which the reward seems high enough to pursue activity despite detrimental consequences. Addiction may involve the use of alcohol, inhalants, opioids, cocaine, nicotine, and even gambling. There is an increased likelihood for these substance abuse and gambling addiction to be accompanied with health concerns such as depression and anxiety. Substance abuse and gambling addiction engage the same brain mechanisms as these health issues and respond to many of the same treatments. Scientific evidence shows that addictive behaviors share key neurobiological features, they intensely involve brain pathways of reward and reinforcement which involves the neurotransmitter dopamine. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/addiction)
Jim had already experimented with Heroin before, so when offered a line to sniff by friends he accepted. He passed out fifteen minutes after inhaling and immediately dropped into a coma lasting more than two months. Today he is confined to a wheelchair, barely able to read and unable to write (drugfreeworld.org). “Drugs equal death. If you do nothing to get out, you end up dying…. To be a drug addict is to be imprisoned. In the end your prison becomes your tomb (drugfreeworld.org/pdf). “Heroin cut me off from the rest of the world. My parents kicked me out. My friends and my brother didn’t want to see me anymore. I was all alone” (drugfreeworld.org/pdf). “I sold my car, lost my job, was kicked out of my mother’s house, was $25,000 in credit card debt, and living on the streets…I lied, I stole, I cheated. I was raped, beaten, mugged, robbed, arrested, homeless, sick, and desperate. I knew that nobody could have a lifestyle like that very long and I knew that death was imminent. If anything, death was better than a life as a junkie” (drugfreeworld.org/pdf).
“The real answer is to not take drugs in the first place” (drugfreeworld.org/pdf). To fit in, to relieve boredom, to escape or relax, to experiment, these are a few reasons people try drugs. Because they want a change in their lives, they think drugs are a solution but eventually drugs become the problem. (drugfreeworld.org/pdf). There are a variety of effective treatments for Heroin use disorder such as pharmacological treatments and behavioral treatments. (drugabuse.gov)
Pharmacological treatments are treatments which use medication to treat. Scientific research has shown that pharmacological treatment of opioid use disorder increases retention in programs and decreases drug use, infectious disease, and criminal activity. When those addicted to opioids first quit, they experience withdrawal symptoms such as pain, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting. Medications may be helpful to ease these severe withdrawal symptoms. (drugabuse.gov)
Behavioral therapies available for opioid use disorder can be delivered in outpatient and residential settings. Contingency management and cognitive- behavioral therapy have been shown to treat Heroin use disorder and are even more effective when combined with medications. Contingency management uses a voucher system in which patients earn points after giving a negative drug test, these vouchers can in turn be exchanged for items that encourage healthy living. Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps to modify the patient’s expectations and behaviors related to drug use while also increasing skills in coping with stressors. These combined techniques and approaches are modified to the individual’s needs. (drugabuse.gov)
If you are stuck in the prison of addiction. You don’t have to stay there. You can recover, it is possible, don’t give up. Lets all Learn something from this, from the Riggs’ story, take something away.
If you’re addicted help is out there. (drugfreeworld.org) email to info@drugfreeworld.org phone 1-888 No To Drugs (1-888-668-6378)
Works Cited
Addiction, what is addiction. Psychology today. Psychology today 2019 Sussex Publishers LLC, Web, accessed 12 October 2019 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/addiction
Foundation for a drug free world, The truth about Heroin. drugfreeworld.org, 2006-2019 Foundation for a drug free world. All rights reserved, web, accessed 12 October 2019 https://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/heroin/i-ll-just-try-it-once.html
Foundation for a drug free world, free booklet drugfreeworld.org 2006-2019 foundation for a drug free world. All right reserved, web, accessed 12, October 2019
file:///C:/Users/Jackie/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe/TempState/Downloads/truth-about-heroin-booklet-en_en%20(3).pdf
NIH National Institute in drug abuse, drugabuse.gov, NIH turning discovery into health, June 2018, Web, accessed 12 October 2019
Barnett, Sylvan Bedau, Hugo, From critical thinking to argument (124)
Professor Ramos' Blog 