Opioid Crisis: America's Deadly Drug Epidemic

The abuse of and addiction to opioids and the current epidemic in America.
Opioids are a class of drugs which have been used since ancient times to reduce pain.
Although opiates are derived from opium and opioids refer to synthetic drugs created to emulate opium, nowadays the term opioid is used for the entire family of drugs including natural, synthetic and semi-synthetic. Opium is an extract of the exudate derived from seedpods of the poppy plant, Papaver somniferum. The opium poppy is native to the Middle East and it was cultivated in lower Mesopotamia. Opium was passed along from the Sumerians, who refer to it as Hul Gil, the 'joy plant,' and the Assyrians to the Babylonians who in turn would pass it on to the Egyptians. Around 3,500 years
Opioids are distributed throughout the body by the blood and accumulate in the kidneys, lungs, liver, spleen digestive tract, and muscles as well the brain.
Most opioids are metabolized in the liver quickly and excreted by the kidneys.
Maisto et al. (2015) consider that opioids are “double-edged swords. On one edge of the sword, they improve the human condition because they are the most potent painkillers available.
On the other edge of the sword, they cause destruction to individuals and society due to their ability to produce sever dependence. Although opioid pain relievers are generally safe when taken for a short time and as prescribed by a doctor, they can be misused (taken in a different way or in a larger quantity than prescribed, or taken without a doctor’s prescription) because they produce euphoria in addition to pain relief. Many of the problems related to opioids stem from chronic use. Consequently regular (e.g., several times a day, for several weeks or more) or longer-term use of opioids can lead to dependence (physical discomfort when not taking the drug), tolerance (diminished effect from the original dose, leading to increasing the
With both dependence and addiction, withdrawal symptoms may occur if drug use is suddenly reduced or stopped.
These symptoms may include restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps, and involuntary leg movements (NIDA, 2016).
Currently, America is in the middle of an opioid epidemic which public health officials have called the deadliest drug crisis ever in American history. Opioid addiction is America’s 50- state epidemic and every day, more than 90 Americans die after overdosing on opioids. Drug overdoses, nearly two-thirds of them from prescription opioids, heroin and synthetic opioids, killed some 64,000 Americans last year, over 20 percent more than in 2015. That is also more

Running head: THE ABUSE OF AND ADDICTION TO OPIOIDS than double the number in 2005, and nearly quadruple the number in 2000 (Salam, 2017). Drug
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overdoses —fueled by opioids and now even more deadly by an influx of illicitly manufactured fentanyl and similar drugs— are the leading cause of death for Americans under 50 years old, more than guns or car accidents, and doing so at a pace faster than the H.I.V. epidemic did at