Opiates are a class of drugs that are used for chronic pain. Opioids are substances that are used to relieve pain by binding opiate receptors throughout the body, and in the brain. These areas in the brain control pain and also emotions, producing a feeling of excitement or happiness. As the brain gets used to these feelings, and the body builds a tolerance to the opioids, there is a need for more opioids and then the possibility of addiction.
There are different forms of Opioids manufactured such as Morphine, Oxycodone, Buprenorphine, Hydrocodone, and Methadone. They are marketed under different brands such as Demerol, Oxycontin, Tylox, Percocet, and Vicodin and can be prescribed in liquid, tablets, capsules, and patches.
In the United States, opioid addiction rates have majorly increased . Between 2000-2015 more than half a million individuals have died from Opioid overdose, and nearly 5 million people have an opioid dependence which has become a serious problem. The Center for Disease control reports that there are 91 deaths daily due to opioid abuse. Taking opioids for long periods of time and in
If medical providers are not able to prescribe medications based on an individual's needs, an individual will go into his or her community to locate and purchase medications. This practice can be dangerous, as it is an unregulated amount of medication which can lead to an opioid overdose. Depending on the need of medication from individuals in the community, members will be prescribed medication and then sell their medication at an increased price.Many individuals will have multiple providers for opioid pain relievers and will even fake the need to visit an emergency room.
Eighty percent of heroin users say that their opioid use began with use of opioid
pain relievers. These same individuals stay that they have switched to heroin use
because it is less
One of the reasons the epidemic has become so widespread is due to the addictiveness of opioids. Opioids are prescription medications used to treat pain, with oxycodone and hydrocodone being the more popular drugs (Mayo). Opioids are addictive because of the way
Prescription and pharmaceutical drug abuse is beginning to expand as a social issue within the United States because of the variety of drugs, their growing availability, and the social acceptance and peer pressure to uses them. Many in the workforce are suffering and failing at getting better due to the desperation driving their addiction.
There are drugs out there that are really dangerous, and I’m sure you know that but there is a type of drug that out there that people we trust are giving it out to people. Those people are our doctors! And they are giving out prescription opioids that are really dangerous and highly addictive.
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.
The reason for the increased use of heroin are unclear currently but death rate and emergency room visits for heroin have grown to staggering rates there were 201,000 emergency room visits alone in 2008 and this is only for the lucky few that had friends kind enough to take them to seek help. There are thousands more that worst so lucky and remain unreported. Heroin has become such growing issue that Chattanooga Count has put out a put awareness campaign waring that there has been more death from heroin over dosing then vehicular manslaughter and homicide combine.
Opioids are used as pain relievers and although it does the job, there are adverse side effects. Opioids are frequently used in the medical field, allowing doctors to overprescribe their patients. The substance can be very addicting to the dosage being prescribed to the patient. Doctors are commonly prescribing opioids for patients who have mild, moderate, and severe pain. As the pain becomes more severe for the patient, the doctor is more likely to increase the dosage. The increasing dosages of the narcotics become highly addicting. Opioids should not be prescribed as pain killers, due to their highly addictive chemical composition, the detrimental effects on opioid dependent patients, the body, and on future adolescents. Frequently doctors have become carless which causes an upsurge of opioids being overprescribed.
Morphine is a highly addictive opiate psychoactive painkiller. It is often used before or after surgery to alleviate severe pain. Morphine acts by attaching to specific proteins called opioid receptors, which are found in the brain, spinal cord, and gastrointestinal tract. The drug was originally derived from the poppy seed plant before it was chemically enhanced and manufactured. Starting off, the drug was used to cure alcoholism and certain types of addictions.
They abuse it by injecting it with a needle, smoking it, or by snorting it. They do this because they stopped taking these prescription drugs that gave them “jolt” feeling, followed by a state of fatigued, which is the same feeling that heroin gives them. Also, in comparison between opioids and heroin, your body builds up a tolerance for both. This means that the people would need more of the substance to get the feeling that they want. This is a major issue with opioid use because the patients need more of the medication to get their pain to go away, and then get addicted and cannot stop taking the pill. There are physical signs of addiction, and these include drowsiness, constricted pupils, nausea, and dry mouth (Drugs of Abuse). These signs occur when addicted to both opioids and heroin. Also, signs of an overdose while using heroin or opioids are blue lips and fingernails, slow breaths and clammy skin (Drugs of Abuse).
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 suffer 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 to the complex problem. The stigma about opioid addiction has wide-reaching negative effects as it
According to the DEA's Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010, from 2001 to 2005 “unintentional overdose deaths involving prescription opioids increased 114%, and "one-third of all new abusers of prescription drugs in 2006 were 12 to 17 year-olds. "(Urschel 1) It's important for us all to pay close attention to what we can do in our own homes to stop perpetuating these statistics. Your health is just something else that comes into danger when abusing prescription
By the year 2000 opioid medicine containing oxycodone etc., are being abused and misused and more than doubled in 10 years’ time.
I began to notice that a few customers would drop off many prescription belonging to other people. These prescriptions where for opioids (narcotic) pain medication, anxiety medication or cough syrups all prescribed in large quantities. I knew very little about prescription medications being abused and sold on the streets.
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.
Those who abuse prescriptions result in over “$72 billion in medical costs each year, which results in lost work productivity and criminal justice costs” (“Addressing Prescription Drug Abuse in the United States Current Activities and Future Opportunities”). It is important to highlight, the socioeconomic factor of people who have “Medicaid are more likely to be prescribed opioids therefore, the overdose deaths are more common among Medicaid-eligible populations” (“Addressing Prescription Drug Abuse in the United States Current Activities and Future