Argumentative Essay On Opioids

Opioids, an important topic to talk about yet and an exceedingly large amount of people don’t know what they are. Do you know what they are? Opioids are a specific type of drug that are used mainly as a narcotic or a pain reliever. They are acceptable when they are used as prescribed by a doctor, but when people overuse them then it becomes a problem. Opioids can become terrible elements in someone life once people over use them and abuse them. Opioids are drugs that should only be prescribed. They are addictive, deadly, and can hurt the users’ family relationships.

Opioids are highly addictive and can keep people from using them properly. People might say it's the users fault and they should be able to control themselves, but it's not something you can just

forget about. Companies should compose drug deterrents that are more generic and easier to access, but also say “that their generic drug is no less abuse deterrent than its brand name counterpart(Jennifer Berrett).” If the drug deterrent is easier to gain a hold of, then the people who get an urge to have more of a certain opioid can quickly and easily get the deterrent without the need to progress to a doctor. There are still other ways that people are trying to reduce opioid addiction. The FDA has created a new guidance “ to decrease addiction rates and prevent unnecessary use of opioids by balancing the need to effectively treat pain in the public health emergency related to opioid abuse(Jennifer Berrett)[.]” This will allow people to lay off the opioids and get better help with the addiction. People also use opioids as a way to relieve stress and to force themselves feel better. Right when people start abusing drugs, they will “have become conditioned to think about drugs and crave them at the first feeling of distress(Sally Satel).”Once better rules are put into play opioids will no longer be much of a problem and will be able to be used correctly.
Opioids are also deadly is used the wrong way.

Once people get addicted they suffer from plenty of problems. Mothers who are pregnant that abuse opioids are seeing that their babies are “suffering from neonatal "addiction"--babies who are physiologically dependent on opioids, though not technically addicted, and who require careful weaning with small doses of methadone, an anti-addiction drug(Sally Satel).” More people are being killed from overdoses since they are so addicted. Since 1999, the addiction rates of opioids has caused “200,000 Americans [to die] from overdoses connected to OxyContin and similar prescription opioids. Addicts who can no longer source or afford prescription drugs often turn to heroin(Xan Rice).” Since people are turning towards heroin they are now starting to buy from dealers and could get infected due to sharing needles. People are starting to notice the amount of people that die from suicide, drugs and opioids, alcohol, and drug related diseases is rising. The “deaths of despair(Xan Rice)”, deaths from suicide, drugs, etc., are starting to rise dramatically and are causing people to want to to more about what is happening. Opioids once abused start taking a toll on a user’s

body.
Opioid has effects on the user’s whole family, not just the user. People are getting worried and when a loved one succumbs to opioids they start to push opioid laws even further. “Seeing family and friends succumb to addiction has made people more fearful of crime and eager for border controls that could stop the flow of drugs(Xan Rice),” and are putting people into a panic on about what is to happen. It has also sucked the money out of families. Families are trying to help the people that are addicted in their families, but “the financial scourge that drug addiction can unleash on families(Greg Iacurci).” Drugs also lead to suicide which crushes a family as well. Drugs will cause “deaths of despair”(Xan Rice) which include suicide. Suicide forces families to have more grief for the loved one that committed suicide and causes them to question what they did wrong for that loved one. People then might progress on to commit suicide themselves. Families receive the first and strongest wave of impact from someone dying of opioids.
People might say it's the person’s fault for getting addicted to opioids and no one else's. But that is usually not the case and doctors have been over prescribing This led to “doctors' over-prescribing long-acting, high-dose narcotics in large quantities(Sally Satel)”. Yes, it might be the person's fault for becoming addicted but it is usually the doctors’ that over prescribe opioids to people and cause them to get addicted without them knowing until it is too late.
Opioids cause people to do actions they might not want to to and can even cause people to die. Opioids abuse is a very vile concept and needs to be taken care of before it goes out of control.