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Opioid epidemic essays
Effects of opioids use essay
The effects of opioids essay
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The video I have reviewed for assignment three focuses on Opioid addiction. The severity of Opioid addiction has increased in the recent years because over 2 million Americans alone suffer from this disease. Not only does addiction effect those abusing Opioids it effects their friends and family as well. This video focuses on treatment, and prevention to bring an end to opioid addiction. Many people get addicted to opioids through a legal prescription which is prescribed to them to treat pain caused by injuries, surgeries, etc.
Purdue is the original company who produced oxycodane they’ve spent a lot of money to convince doctors and the FDA the drug is not addictive, which is the reason it was approved by the FDA and is prescribed to this
The documentary Heroin Cape Cod, USA focused on the widespread abuse of pain medication such as Vicodin, Percocet, and Oxycodone that has led the U.S. into the rise of an opiate addiction. Many of the users within the video explained that it doesn’t matter where you go, there is no stopping, and you can’t just get high once. Instead, those who do it want that high forever. I think that this is a very important concept that those who aren’t addicted to drugs need to understand, no matter how hard it is to. The documentary featured many addicts including Marissa who first popped pills when she was 14 years old, Daniel who stated he started by snorting pixie sticks, and Arianna who started smoking weed and drinking before age 12. Additionally, the documentary interviewed Ryan and Cassie. These addicts explained that in Cape Cod you either work and you’re normal, or you do drugs.
The documentary states that over 27,000 deaths a year are due to overdose from heroin and other opioids. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2015 prescription pain relievers account for 20,101 overdose deaths, and 12,990 overdose deaths are related to heroin (Rudd et al., 2010-2015). The documentary’s investigation gives the history of how the heroin epidemic started, with a great focus on the hospice movement. We are presented with the idea that once someone is addicted to painkillers, the difficulty in obtaining the drug over a long period of time becomes too expensive and too difficult. This often leads people to use heroin. This idea is true as a 2014 survey found that 94% of respondents who were being treated for opioid addiction said they chose to use heroin because prescription opioids were “more expensive and harder to obtain (Cicero et al., 2014).” Four in five heroin users actually started out using prescription painkillers (Johns, 2013). This correlation between heroin and prescription painkiller use supports the idea presented in the documentary that “prescription opiates are heroin prep school.”
Almost one hundred years ago, prescription drugs like morphine were available at almost any general store. Women carried bottles of very addictive potent opiate based pain killers in their purse. Many individuals like Edgar Allen Poe died from such addictions. Since that time through various federal, state and local laws, drugs like morphine are now prescription drugs; however, this has not stopped the addiction to opiate based pain killers. Today’s society combats an ever increasing number of very deadly addictive drugs from designer drugs to narcotics to the less potent but equally destructive alcohol and marijuana. With all of these new and old drugs going in and out of vogue with addicts, it appears that the increase of misuse and abuse is founded greater in the prescription opiate based painkillers.
From interviewing celebrities such as actress Kristen Johnston and politician Bill White, the film identified substance abuse can happen to anyone. I found more sympathy to those once I learned the facts, not opinions, of substance abuse users. It was interesting to find how the physiology of ones’ brain may change over time, thus proving it is not always a person’s free will of choice to use. People of addiction are like anyone else who may have fallen down the wrong path. Some who have found substance abuse for coping, did not realize they were becoming addicts. Others have found the media and advertisement placing pressure on them because it looks entertaining and fun. With limited outreach programs, it is crucial to increase the awareness among young groups for prevention. With fear of being judged, the stigma and health disparities of addiction cause many to not seek help. Equal opportunity should be available to everyone. As a future nurse, I find an important role for me is to lead in educating and being opened minded to the struggles of each one of my patients. My job is to refrain from stereotyping and being an advocate. As healthcare is always evolving to provide the most adequate care, I look forward towards the future as more people are educating and trying to eliminate those struggling through addiction
Opioid’s chemical composition consist of many highly addictive substances which cause the human body to become quickly tolerant. Many opioid users become addictive to the substance because the doctors have been over prescribing. “In the United States, there were 14,800 annual prescribed opioid (PO) deaths in 2008” with the US having less restrictions (Fischer, Benedikt, et al 178). The United States have implemented more regulations so that “high levels of PO-related harms been associated with highly potent oxycodone formulas” will decrease (Fischer, Benedikt, et al 178). With the regulations, it does not change the fact that opioids are is destructive. The regulations assistance by lessening the probability of patients becoming addictive to opioid. There are numerous generations that are effected and harmed by the detrimental effects of opioids on opioid-dependent patients.
On the typical day, over 90 people will die at the hand of opioid abuse in America alone (National). In fact, as of 2014, nearly 2 million Americans were dependent and abusing opioids. The Opioid Crisis has affected America and its citizens in various ways, including health policy, health care, and the life in populous areas. Due to the mass dependence and mortality, the crisis has become an issue that must be resolved in all aspects.
Every year, 2.6 million people in the United States suffer from opioid abuse and of that 2.6 million, 276,000 are adolescents, and this problem is only escalating. An individual’s physical and emotional health suffers as well as their personal lives as they lose employment, friends, family, and hope. Opioid addiction begins with the addictive aspects of the drug. People easily become hooked on the relieving effects of the opioids and suffer withdrawal symptoms if they stop using the drug completely because their nerve cells become accustomed to the drug and have difficulty functioning without it; yet the addiction to the drug is only one aspect of the complex problem. The stigma about opioid addiction has wide-reaching negative effects as it discourages people with opioid abuse problems from reaching out.
Heroin was originally synthesized in 1874 by a man named C.R Alder Wright. Created as a solution to opium, a drug that had plagued many American households. It was originally produced for medical purposes evidently becoming highly addictive. Heroin “... was originally marketed as a non-addictive substance” (“History of Addiction”) which inevitably increased its popularity. It became especially popular in places of poverty. Heroin became a solution to struggle. So common it was almost as if heroin was a prescribed medicine for hardship. Known as “[a] treatment of many illnesses and pain” (“A brief history of addiction”) but later revealed that it caused more harm than good. Being so easily accessible it became immensely common among musicians.
The rate of death due to prescription drug abuse in the U.S. has escalated 313 percent over the past decade. According to the Congressional Quarterly Transcription’s article "Rep. Joe Pitt Holds a Hearing on Prescription Drug Abuse," opioid prescription drugs were involved in 16,650 overdose-caused deaths in 2010, accounting for more deaths than from overdoses of heroin and cocaine. Prescribed drugs or painkillers sometimes "condemn a patient to lifelong addiction," according to Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This problem not only affects the lives of those who overdose but it affects the communities as well due to the convenience of being able to find these items in drug stores and such. Not to mention the fact that the doctors who prescribe these opioids often tend to misuse them as well. Abusing these prescribed drugs can “destroy dreams and abort great destinies," and end the possibility of the abuser to have a positive impact in the community.
A young mother suffers a heroin overdose. She lays lifeless amid the aisle of a Massachusetts Family Dollar, and the cries of her daughter erupt upon social media, for a bystander recorded the distressing incident. A hopeful young man, one week following his rehabilitation discharge, died inside of his Colorado home, overdosing on sedatives and opioids. (The Opioid Crisis, Peter Katel). The heroin and opioid crisis continually fluctuates within the United States, and many experts contemplate whether unique programs and medical institutions can provide for these abusers and evade a steady growth in the opioid epidemic. Concepts to reduce the opioid crisis include promoting awareness of opioid history, establishing safe-injection sites, advocating
Many therapists can increase the functional abilities of their patient’s lives, I aim to do more than just that. In the last two decades, the United States has experienced an explosion of opioid drug use and abuse. Along with assessing heart rate and blood pressure, pain has become the fifth vital sign used to evaluate a patient’s status in most every healthcare setting. There is now more of an emphasis to manage pain and in turn more and more opioids prescriptions have been written. The United States is currently immersed in an opioid crisis with no discrimination of its victims. Drug overdoses have since become the leading cause of death of Americans under 50 years of age, with two-thirds of those deaths from opioids. The stereotypical street drug user is no longer the norm but rather all socioeconomic levels are affected. There has been a surge of prevalence in middle aged women addicted to pain killers who often suffer in silence and are well equipped to hide their problem. Most everyone knows someone and has had their lives or family affected by drug
Heroin Overdose deaths are more prominent in the news than ever before, and it is not because people are bored and decided to report on something. The spike in opioid overdoses is not something people can just decide not to hear, it is a growing problem and it is growing fast. Drug abuse is real and heroin is being abused every day on the streets of Ohio. We can prevent the growing opioid overdose epidemic in America by informing the general population on what actually happens in an opioid overdose, spending time and money researching new non-addictive pain-killing medication and fund and/or support the use of drugs to counteract the effects of the opiates for an overdose. Opioid Overdoses are now the
The extent of the opioid abuse crisis is clear. Opioid drug abuse has increasingly become a major problem. The problem is currently so concerning that it is currently one of the leading causes of death in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “…drug overdose, particularly due to the increase in nonmedical use of prescription pain-relief drugs, is the second leading cause of deaths from unintentional injuries in the United States, exceeded only by motor vehicle fatalities.” (Kirschner1) In fact, the CDC classifies the abuse problem as an ‘epidemic’.
The recent opioid crisis shows the dangers of this solution very plainly. As a result, many opioid users are looking for a safer alternative. They want to say goodbye to opioid use, but they need another way to manage their symptoms.
It is also the most abused drug in people between the ages of 17-25 because,”In the U.S., past-year prevalence of nonmedical use of prescription drugs -- opioids, stimulants, tranquilizers and sedatives--was reported by 6 percent of 12 to 17 year-olds and just under 12 percent of 18 to 25 year-olds, mainly driven by the misuse of opioids” this shows that opioids leads the number for the highest nonmedical use of a prescription drug in America. Another reason why opioids are the most misused drug is that they are quite easily obtained. Anyone can go to the doctors office and fake an illness to get