Heroin Crisis and Homelessness in California's Rural North

Running Head: NURSING PUBLIC HEALTH
NURSING PUBLIC HELATH
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1NURSING PUBLIC HEALTH
“Needle by Needle, a Heroin Crisis Grips California’s Rural North”
“Needle by Needle, a Heroin Crisis Grips California’s Rural North” from the New
York Times on November 8, 2018 discusses extensive use of opoids using surgical
needles which is in combination with homelessness created an epidemic condition in the
United States of America.
Barman-Adhikari et al., (2018) conducted a study to understand the effect of
availability of injectible drugs on their mental state and they found that due to lack of
governmental policies and norms, littered injections were easily available around the
homeless people which further worked as an enticing factor (Real, 2018). It had also been
stated by many of the residents dwelling in the homeless encampments that the clearing
of the camps further worsened their condition and propelled them towards drug addiction.
It has been reported that the homeless people did not take meth recreationally but just to
keep them awake at night so that they could move around and keep themselves safe from
the random frisking activities done by the police (Hickton & Leary, 2015). The article
here relates homelessness with drug addiction. As mentioned by Quinones (2015),
removing the vulnerable people from the homeless encampments has subjected them to
greater dangers.
Additionally, the homelessness along with constant moving and carving for food
had made people restore to unethical means of gaining energy (Barman-Adhikari et al.,
2018). The hunger and the helplessness made the homeless bohemians suffer from
physical exhaustion and mental anxiety. The lack of easy meth availability further made
people more prone to heroin addiction.The federal government agencies should try to