The Effects Of Opiates

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.

A segment published by Postmedia News deliberates the good, the bad, and the ugly of opioid pain medication. The author of this article, Sharon Kirksey captures the personal and medical interpretation on this increasing problem. Prolonged use of these medications not only cause physical damage to internal organs, they also have a high risk for addiction. Sharon Kirkey wonderfully illustrates statistics in the form of monetary value, time, and human life. Although these facts and stories come from Canada, this topic is a huge problem in the United States as well.in

Substance abuse disorders have been considered a major epidemic by public health authorities during this century. Most recently, those who use, and abuse opioids have been in the spotlight. The growing number of overdoses, deaths, and individuals who are identified as opioid abusers has, of late, been the subject of media attention. Now coined “The Opioid

Individuals who use Opioids are Addicts. The history of this very debatable topic is very educational and interesting. Opioids are drugs that are prescribed for severe to chronic pain, some examples of opioids are: morphine,?methadone, Buprenorphine,?hydrocodone, and?oxycodone.?Heroin?is also an opioid and is illegal. Opioid drugs sold under brand names include: OxyContin?,?Percocet?, Palladone?(taken off the market 7/2005),Vicodin?, Percodan?, Tylox? and?Demerol? among others. These drugs are also classified as a schedule II drug. Substances in this schedule have a high potential for abuse which may lead to severe psychological or physical dependence. Substances are placed in their respective schedules based on whether they have a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, their relative abuse potential, and likelihood

As we all have researched and found out the devastating numbers to the opioid epidemic “the abuse of prescription and non-prescription opioids is one of the greatest threats facing public health in the United States today. It is estimated that as many as 2.5 million people in the US are suffering from opioid addiction related to prescriptions, and an additional 467,000 are addicted to heroin”(2017).

Do opioids have only harmful effects or they provide medical help in human as well?

Analysis: Opioids are a class of drug that are medically used as very effective painkillers, like fentanyl and morphine, however, they are highly addictive and produce a feeling of euphoria (“Opioids”). This combination leads do a lot of abuse and dependency, where people take more than prescribed in order to feel better. People start off taking the opioid painkillers in order to not feel pain as prescribed by their doctors. Then, they end up getting addicted to them. There are also illicit opioids, such as heroin, that are also highly addictive and also lead to dependency and death (“Opioids”). These illicit versions are taken for recreational reasons, and are also often mixed with other drugs. The combination of taking an unregulated drug in conjunction with other drugs leads to a lot of overdoses.

Have you ever thought about doing drugs? If so you're not the first, but you probably didn't think about how it could affect you and your life. In 2016 63,600 people didn’t think of the consequences and ended up dying from overdosing in the United States. 42,249 deaths involved an opioid. Opioids are drugs made to replicate opium. They both include legal painkillers like morphine, oxycodone, or hydrocodone prescribed by doctors. The problem with opioids has been growing for years and its growing with each year. The misuse of and addiction of opioids is a serious national crisis. It effects public health as well as social and economic welfare.

Today the recent growth of prescription opioid painkillers has made opiate use far more domesticated and widespread than ever before.  Even though heroin use has declined, the use of prescription opiates has increased. The use of prescription opiates for people who are dependent on the drugs for pain reduction has lead to an increase in abuse. When a family member or friend begins taking the drugs, not because they need them, but because they want to feeling, it becomes an addiction. Even though an addict is dependent on opiates, a person who is opiate-dependent is different because of the psychological, physical, and financial effects.

Prescription opioid abuse is the intentional use of prescribed pain medication, or analgesics, for uses other than or beyond the time limits of, what the prescription is written for. It has become a widespread problem in the United States and is growing quickly. Unfortunately, most of the blame falls on our healthcare system, which tends to take the “band aid” approach to health issues. Oftentimes, pain medications are overprescribed and undermanaged without addressing the origin of the medical ailment that is causing the pain. Due to the misconception that taking these FDA prescribed drugs are safe, rates of abuse with these drugs is on the rise. Accidental deaths due to prescription opioid overdose have increased dramatically since 1999, and surpass those caused by cocaine and heroin. Prescription opioid abuse has a tremendous negative impact on the individual, the healthcare system, and society in general. This paper will explore the trends, history, mechanisms, individual impact, societal costs, and the management and treatment of prescription opioid use and abuse.

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.

Since the 19th century the United States has struggled with the control of opioids and how to properly treat the people who become dependent on them. By the 1980s studied revealed that the potential of drug dependence, also known as iatrogenic addiction, was relatively low for patients who were prescribed opiates for treatment (Beauchamp, 2014, p. 2023) - In the mid 1990s, Perdue Pharma introduced OxyContin, a Schedule II prescription opioid analgesic, to the pharmaceutical market (Boerner, 2016, p. 20). Since the release of OxyContin, a substantial number of Americans have been prescribed opiates for medical treatment. Society’s view on prescription opiate use has slowly shifted from being a normative treatment method recommended by healthcare professionals, to being viewed as deviant. Prescription opioids have played a large role in increased rates of incarceration, fatal and non-fatal opiate overdose, transitions to illicit drugs and HIV infection in the United States (Boerner, 2016, p. 21). Prescription opiate use is seen as deviant when the drug is misused for non-medical purposes.

The social effects of opiate addiction are felt by those who may have never even seen more than an image of heroin. For example; “In an early study, for example, Inciardi reported that a cohort of 239 male heroin addicts from Miami committed 80,644 criminal acts during the 12 months before being interviewed (Inciardi, 1979).”. (Strain and Stitzer, 2006) In part, this is due to the problems associated with the severe withdrawal symptoms that begin about 18 hours after the last use, and the result that addicts will do almost anything to avoid them. These include sweating, vomiting, insomnia, cold sweats, pain in the limbs, yawning, sneezing, severe bone and muscle aches, diarrhea, stomach cramps

Opiate depen¬dence has the highest propensity for causing physical harm to the user, and societal harm through damage to family and social circles. Opiate dependence is not only associated with high mortality rates and poor health among dependent individuals, but also imposes excessively large economic and social costs upon the community including the costs of health care, social care, and crime. Considerable medical, legal, and interpersonal harm, including mortality, is associated with opiate use (Nutt et al., 2007).

The use of drugs is a controversial topic in society today. In general, addicts show a direct link between taking drugs and suffering from their effects. People abuse drugs for a wide variety of reasons. In most cases, the use of drugs will serve a type of purpose or will give some kind of reward. These reasons for use will differ with different kinds of drugs. Various reasons for using the substance can be pain relief, depression, anxiety and weariness, acceptance into a peer group, religion, and much more. Although reasons for using may vary for each individual, it is known by all that consequences of the abuse do exist. It is only further down the line when the effects of using can be seen.