Title: A Heroin Epidemic
General purpose: To inform.
Specific purpose: To inform the audience of facts about heroin use.
Thesis: Today I want to explore with you the background of heroin use in the United States, heroin addiction and how it affects health.
Introduction:
I. Many people would never think that heroin would ever play a role in their life or the lives of their family.
a) According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, 4.2 million Americans have tried heroin, and 23% of those people became dependent on heroin.
II. As a pre-nursing student I have taken courses related to human physiology, psychology and chemistry, all of which have helped to give me a better understanding of the biochemical processes within the human body.
III. Today I would like to speak with you about some of the history of heroin use in the United States, heroin addiction, and how it affects health.
Body:
I. Opiates have been used by humans for over 6000 years for its ability to relieve pain, induce sedation and promote euphoria.
A. Heroin, a member of the opiate family, comes from a group of drugs extracted from the poppy plant.
B. According to Carmen Ferreiro, author of “Drugs: The Straight Facts About Heroin”, it was first synthesized by British chemist C.R.A. Wright in 1874.
1. Twenty years later German scientist and employee of the Bayer company, Heinrich Dreser, decided to test the drug for its effectiveness against human respiratory disease. Dreser probably reasoned that since morphine worked well in the past for relieving cough, diacetylmorphine, heroin, would probably work too. In 1898, Dreser introduced the drug known as heroin, so called the heroic cure against the Great White Plague of the time-tuberculosis.
C. For the next 16 years after its introduction, heroin was widely and easily available in drug and grocery stores or by mail order as a sedative for coughs.
1. Eventually heroin had become a widely abused opiate. It was finally declared...