Addiction And Opioid Use For Drug Abuse

Opioid use in the US has increased over the years, and this has led to an increase in substance abuse. Substance abuse is not only associated with use of illicit drugs but also prescription drugs. In 2015, of the 20.5 million reported cases of substance abuse, 2 million had an abuse disorder related to prescription pain relievers and 591,000 associated with heroin.1 The increase in substance abuse disorder has led to an increase in opioid related death. In 2015 drug overdose was the leading cause of accidental death in the US with 52, 404 lethal drug overdoses.2

In Nolan and Amico’s article, “How Bad is the Opioid Epidemic?” they argue the opioid epidemic has become the worst drug crisis in American history. Heroin and other opioids overdose kill more than 47,055 people a year. Deaths caused from drug overdose has outnumber as much as 40 percent compared to the death caused from car crashes in 2014 (Nolan and Amico 3). Furthermore, in 1999 there were only 15000 people died from drug overdose. This number has tripled in 15 years. Also, in his article, “America’s Addiction to Opioids: Heroin and Prescription Drug Abuse” Volkow also presents the fact that “with an estimated 2.1 million people in the United States suffering from substance use disorders related to prescription opioid pain relievers in 2012 and an estimated 467,000 addicted to heroin. The consequences of this abuse have been devastating and are on the rise. For example, the number of unintentional overdose deaths from prescription pain relievers has

The United States of America has had a war against drugs since the 37th president, Richard Nixon, declared more crimination on drug abuse in June 1971. From mid-1990s to today, a crisis challenges the health department and government on opioid regulation, as millions of Americans die due overdoses of painkillers. Opioids are substances used as painkillers, and they range from prescription medications to the illegal drug, heroin. Abusing these substances can cause a dependency or addiction, which can lead to overdoses, physical damages, emotional trauma, and death. To ease the crisis, physicians are asked to depend on alternatives to pain management. Law enforcement cracks down on profiting drug-dealers and heroin abusers. People are warned against misusing opioids. The controversy begins for those who suffer from chronic pain, because they depend on opioids. There’s so a correlation to the 1980s cocaine epidemic, and people are upset over racial discrimination. Nonetheless, the best way to avoid this crisis is to recover the people at risk, reduce inappropriate opioid description, and have a proper response.

The United States currently faces an unprecedented epidemic of opioid addiction. This includes painkillers, heroin, and other drugs made from the same base chemical. In the couple of years, approximately one out of twenty Americans reported misuse or abuse of prescriptions painkillers. Heroin abuse and overdoses are on the rise and are the leading cause of injury deaths, surpassing car accidents and gun shots. The current problem differs from the opioid addiction outbreaks of the past in that it is also predominant in the middle and affluent classes. Ultimately, anyone can be fighting a battle with addiction and it is important for family members and loved ones to know the signs. The cause for this epidemic is that the current spike of opioid abuse can be traced to two decades of increased prescription rates for painkillers by well-meaning physicians.

Depending on the source, some would term the heroin and opioid problem in the United States a crisis, while others would use the word epidemic. Regardless of which expression is more accurate, the situation regarding heroin and opioid use, abuse and dependence has ignited national, if not global concern. History shows us that pervasive dilemmas have a tendency to cultivate a variety of intervention and the heroin and opioid crisis is no different.

If you watch the news it should come as no surprise that drug abuse and overdoses have increased dramatically in the United States. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, as many as 36 million people abuse opioids throughout the world with 2.1 million in the U.S. who currently suffer from opioid abuse disorders (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2014). These astonishing numbers are only marginalized when comparing them to opioid related deaths in the United States. With an increase of 137 percent since 2000, deaths from drug overdoses now occur 1.5 times more often than deaths from motor vehicle accidents (Rudd Aleshire, Zibbell & Gladden, 2016). The opioid epidemic in the

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

This literature review will focus mainly on the drug use of heroin, the scary numbers behind the drug and the sudden rise of overdosing on the drug across the United States. Issues that will be discussed are what is Heroin, what’s in Heroin that makes it addicting, how it can increase the users risk of contracting other life threatening diseases and where it’s use and abuse are most popular across the United states and we will take a look at multiple studies that show examples of our new drug problem in the United States. While we looked at how homicide rates have dropped while in class, the flip side to that is that the amount of drug usage has risen.

“The total "economic burden" of prescription opioid misuse alone in the United States is $78.5 billion a year, including the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement”. -The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Nonmedical Prescription-Opioid abuse in the United States and Michigan has continued to rise, and with it, the devastating results that accompany it. Research has shown that increased opioid abuse leads to an increase in overdose and death, increases in crime and increased incidences of costly blood borne diseases like HIV, AIDS and Hepatitis. It also leads to increased societal costs, such as an increasing number of children in foster care and increased healthcare, workplace and criminal justice costs that can decimate communities and local budgets. Many communities were caught with their heads in the sand, as they were overwhelmed by the influx of prescription opioids into their communities. When policies were finally implemented to curb the amount of prescription opioids in their communities, rates of heroin use (also an opioid) began to skyrocket and people began realizing they had an opioid epidemic on their hands. How to combat this heroin epidemic has been the topic of many debates. This article will attempt to examine the relationship of nonmedical prescription-opioid abuse and its effects on heroin use.

The United States is experiencing a prescription opioid epidemic, which is devastating the lives of many Americans. In an effort to help patients manage pain, instead of non-addictive alternatives, opioids are often prescribed by doctors (CDC, 2017). Patients who take opioids understand the risk of addiction that comes with taking them but do not understand just how addictive they can be (NSC, 2017). Six out of ten patients who are prescribed opioids have reported at least one addiction risk factor, based on personal or family history, showing that opioids have a highly addictive nature (NSC, 2017). Not only are 60% of patients at risk of addiction, those who take opioids for more than seven days double their chances of using them one year

Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) is a chronic and potentially life-threatening disease, and the main feature of which is addictive and compulsive opioid use (Drugs & Crime, 2010). Opioid drugs include some of the prescribed pain relievers as well as illicit drugs, such as heroin, codeine, oxycodone, etc. In the United States, about 9.5 million adults use pain relievers for nonmedical purpose, 1.6 million adults meet diagnostic criteria of pain reliever use disorders, and 0.56 million have heroin use disorder (Hedden, 2015), at a huge social and financial cost (Alan G. White et al., 2011). Furthermore, the relapse rate of OUD patients in treatment is high (Davstad et al., 2007).

The problem with opioids as a sole source of relief is that not only are they physically and psychologically addictive, but the user also begins to build a tolerance to the therapeutic effects. Eventually one requires higher doses in order to achieve the initial levels of pain relief. As the dose increases, so does the level of dependency and addiction. If a doctor refuses to increase the dose for the patient’s safety, the pain returns and patient may begin to feel the effects of opiate withdrawal. In worst-case scenarios people begin to abuse alcohol or seek out prescription pain medication illegally. Illicit and less expensive street drugs are often sought out if the afflicted can no longer afford their medications or cannot find a source of pain and addiction relief anywhere else. Purchase of street drugs becomes common when addiction begins to affect someone’s ability to keep a steady source of income. As a result, there has been a surge of opioid, heroin, and alcohol abuse and eventual overdose. (Dart, et al., 2015)

This article is about the cost of prescription opioid being abused, dependent on and being misused by individuals in the United States. The authors believed that the cost of prescription opioid abuse has become a burden for the United States as a society. Furthermore, the authors believe that the realms of health care, criminal justice and lost workplace productivity are faced with the most challenges of the burden caused by opioid abuse (Birnbaum, White, Schiller, Waldman, Cleveland, & Roland, 2011). The authors assumed to lessen the economic burden of prescription opioid abuse, there is a continuous need of effort from academic researchers, industry, health care providers, and government to implement appropriate actions (Birnbaum, White et

In order to measure illegal opioid use and its effects on theft rates, we will follow the framework guidelines set forth by Gottfredson, Karley, and Bushway (2008). The study will contain the measures listed, (a) criminal activity listed by type of crime, (b) if criminal activity was directly motivated by the desire to acquire additional drugs, and (c) substance abuse