The Problem With Opioids As A Sole Source Of Relief

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.

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

Opioids are being over prescribed in the United States resulting in increased deaths by drug overdose. Pain medication strategies are being looked into as substitutes for pain management. Over decades, the amount of medicine being prescribed has more than tripled. State policies regarding the medication were implemented and who'd a small decrease in the likelihood of opioid prescriptions. Nationally, death rates are on the rise. Studies monitoring prescription drugs do not account for illegal opioids and manufactured fentanyl. While not mentioned in this article, there is a possible correlation between young people prescribed opioids and illegal drug use seeing that overdoses are common in patients already abusing their prescription medication, yet overdose death being most common after

Opioid abuse is a growing epidemic within the United States. Not only are people abusing the prescription forms of opioids (such as oxycodone - OxyContin, hydrocodone - Vicodin, codeine, and morphine) by taking more than they are supposed to, but they are also being bought, sold, and used on the streets illegally; such as heroin. Opioids are highly addicting because of the high they can induce in a person, causing a dependence and yearning for continued use (NIDA, n.d.) In 2007, the United States was responsible for over 99 percent of the global consumption of hydrocodone and 83 percent of the global consumption of oxycodone (United Nations Publications, 2009).

Base on the sales representatives instructions, physicians started prescribing “opioids”. Shortly after, it was discovered that patient’s pain was relieved only for a small span of time, and when the pain came back it was more intense. Users had developed a resistance to “opioids”. Physicians then kept increasing their patient’s dose of medication, until the drug no longer had any effect on their bodies’ nervous system. Patients become accustomed to the fast release of endorphins cause by “opioids” (a chemical in the brain that naturally diminishes pain perception, and also acts like a sedative). Users began to notice the “rush” of the pain medication, like oxicodone (a fast relieve but short acting drug), oxicontine (extended relieve form of oxicodone) the most addicting form of “opioids”. By now they were not looking to ease their pain other that supply their dependency on the drugs. When Patients were no longer able to get enough medication from doctors, they either bought pills illegally or turned to a cheaper street drug, heroin, (a euphoric drug). “Heroin” affects the same brain receptors and provides the same “rush” effects like “oxicodone” enabling their

opioids are drugs formulated to replicate the pain-reducing properties of opium. The opioid crisis is the rapid increase in the use of prescription and non-prescription opioid drugs in the United States beginning in the late 1990s and continuing throughout following decades to come. Pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to prescription opioid, therefore healthcare providers went ahead and prescribe them at greater rates. The potency and accessibility of these substances, despite their high risk of addiction and overdose, have made them popular both for medical and recreational purposes.

It is no secret that opioids, or prescription painkillers, cost an amount of money. Even having a high grade insurance plan, a patient is going to pay for an appointment to get that prescription over and over again, fueling an addiction. Imagine what will happen if the formally mention patient cannot get his or her doctor to prescribe the medication anymore. He or she will have to start buying their drugs on the Black Market. Through a process called crowdsourcing, drug addicts can search the Internet for the cheapest drugs sold by the milligram (Nabarun, Freifeld, Brownstein, al. 2013). Common painkiller prescription drugs sell for under a dollar. Examples include $0.81 for hydrocodone and $0.52 for morphine. For some perspective, one thirty milligram pill is about eighteen square millimeters. One milligram of that is one-thirtieth of that eighteen millimeters. To get a full pill, an addict would have to buy thirty times that amount per milligram. That can add up if the addict needs more medication or even a stronger dose. Having seemingly cheap alternatives to the more expensive prescription filler makes users forget about the risk of buying the opioids under the table. Risk is not an issue for those who are already criminals. Buying over the Black Market appears to be the last moved for those struggling with addiction. Having no money, there is nothing to do about taxes, rent, or electricity and water bills. Paying

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

With every five first time heroin users, four of them will have started out by using prescription painkillers (ASAM). According to the Journal of Addiction Medicine, the years 2010 to 2013 showed an increase of heroin-overdose deaths by 37% (NIDA). Until recently, opioid addiction, related criminal activity and death have been deeply casted into the shadows of important issues in our societies at a global level. Care for this particular area of substance abuse is urgent and crucial, one dosage having the capability to kill a person instantly. Before people can rid themselves of the poisons, the human body reacts to the absence of opioids in a powerful cycle of withdrawal. Decades filled with little to no research surrounding the rehabilitation of this common but life threatening illness has unfortunately resulted in few options for people to turn to. Medical experts, politicians and even passionate citizens are beginning to point attention towards this progressively large margin of individuals that are becoming addicted, desperate for treatment, and ending up with results of complete failure. The one-size-fits-all approach to opioid treatment needs to be abolished and replaced with a method of accountability and strict individual progress.

In the United States, more than 2 million people suffer from substance abuse disorders that correlate with use of prescription opioid painkillers. Over the past 15 years, overdose deaths due to prescription opioids have more than quadrupled. One of the underlying causes is the over prescription of pain relievers by physicians. This was demonstrated in 2013, with the writing of 207 million prescriptions for opioid pain relievers.

When people picture a drug addict, many individuals may see the same picture of a dirty, disgusting, maybe even homeless, individual that has no place in this world. While addicts like this do exist, the wide spread of the current opiate addiction crisis has completely changed the worlds perception. The word opiate is a wide spread term for a group of narcotics that cause sedation, respiratory failure, and if used excessively, can result in death. However, their high potential for addiction has resulted in what some parts of the world have declared as a public health crisis. With the over-prescribing of painkillers and the increased availability and lowered price of heroin on the streets, opiate addictions and overdoses have increased dramatically;

To put it in perspective, in a list of substances most abused by Americans ages 14 and older, prescription drugs came third with marijuana and alcohol taking the top two (“Prescription Medication Abuse” 4). Opioids specifically are contributing to this problem. The amount of opioids being used has also increased by 400% since 1997 (“Is Substance” 2). With about 2.1 million Americans being addicted to legal narcotics, opioid addictions make up the majority of prescription drug abuse in America (“Prescription Medication Abuse” 2-3). It doesn’t take long for an addiction to these substances to form either. In fact, one-third Americans who took prescription opioids for a minimum of two months became addicted to them (“Prescription Medication Abuse” 7). Although it may seem like a small problem, with about 30,000 Americans dying from opioid overdoses every year and an estimated 78 Americans dying every day, it is anything but (“Prescription Medication Abuse” 3). Not only can these addictions lead to death, it can also lead those suffering from opioid addictions to turn to illegal drugs. Those who become addicted to opioids will often switch to illegal opioids such as heroin or fentanyl (“Safer Alternatives” 1). There are a couple reasons why some may want to switch these drugs rather than the prescribed opioids. One, heroin is cheaper than

“The total toll from prescription opioid overdoses exceeds 175,000, three times the U.S. body count in the Vietnam war” (“Pain Medications are Killing…” 1). In 2013, half as many people died in a traffic accident than overdosed, and 2,000 less had been murdered (“Pain Medications are Killing…” 1). Opioid prescription has contributed to a rise in heroin abuse and deaths, because opioid patients turn to find new and stronger drugs and seek a street equivalent chemical that is easy to find and cheap to use (“Pain Medications are Killing…” 2). It has also lead to a rise in other drugs, and today there is the highest prescription and drug abuse rates ever. Not only is it causing deaths, but it is causing debt in America. To address the scale of

In recent years, chronic pain has been affecting millions of Americans. Whether it is headaches or backaches, chronic pain can be continuous and excruciating for many. Pain management and relief have been mainly treated with prescriptions of opiates. However, people don’t realize that the number of deaths caused by over dosing has increased. This prevalence of prescribing opiates to aid chronic pain has triggered an addiction problem across the US. Although opiates can reduce chronic pain, this benefit may come at the cost of hospitalization for opioid addiction and as a result of overdose deaths. There is a need for advance research to determine whether or not this medication can be used in a manner that maximizes its effectiveness while minimizing the risks. Non-pharmacotherapy treatments could be the solution to this prescription of opiates problem in order to stop the rapid rise of opiate addictions.

Did you know that there is an estimated minimum of 190,000 deaths per year globally from opioid overdoses? SIRS data base reports that all around the country the amount of overdoses from prescribed opioids is rising. Resulting in thousands of deaths and many more hospitalized. But will increased regulation make it more difficult for people who need the medication to acquire? This paper will examine viewpoint one, two and my viewpoint on prescription drug abuse.