Gledhill And Brennan Case Study

When OxyContin went off the market in 2012, a new drug came to raise, Fentanyl. Fentanyl is a potent, fast acting, synthetic pain killer; its potency is 100 times greater than morphine and about 50 times greater than heroin (FISCHER, 2016). It was marketed to cancer patients and those In severe chronic pain. Fentanyl was created by a company called Insys Therapeutics, INC. This drug is beginning to take Canada by storm, with its potency overdoses and deaths are happening across the country, it is almost impossible to turn of the news without the mention of this drug.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, which in high dosages can result in a decrease respiratory rate, hypertension and bradycardia that can lead to death if untreated (Olson et. al, 2010). Robert having worked in a hospital as a respiratory therapist gave him an opportunity as to how and when the medication could be stolen without detection. While his family slept, he went into the home and injected his wife and two children with lethal doses of Fentanyl.

When people take these synthetic heroin pills, they do not feel as though it is a drug addiction as much as it is a way for them to deal with pain, over-stimulation, and as a tranquilizer. Today, we are currently facing an epidemic with drug addiction and continuously trying to solve the problem with a war on drugs. “The U.S. spends about $51 billion a year enforcing the war on drugs, and arrests nearly 1.5 million people for drug violations, according to Drug Policy Alliance, a drug policy reform group” (Ferner). Since the United States spends so much money on this epidemic, the numbers should start to go down, but it is instead doing the opposite. It is easy to figure out the numbers through doctors, “Increases in prescription drug misuse over the last

Across the world abusing prescription drugs causes more deaths than street drugs do combined (“International Statistics”). Prescription drugs are so easy to get ahold of and so easy to get addicted to. The misuse of prescription drugs have gotten out of hand. These drugs can cause unintentional overdoses easily. The misuse of prescription drugs can lead to addiction, affect the health of users in a dramatic way, and even cause death.

Underlying Causes: The increase in the sale of opioids is considered to be the root of the opioid crisis, as the drugs have been proven to be highly addictive. An addiction to prescriptive opioids, however, can lead to an addiction to synthetic, illegal opioids, such as heroine or fentanyl, which are less expensive and easier to acquire. In fact, in their journal article, “Associations of nonmedical pain reliever use and initiation of heroin use in the United States” Pradip Muhuri and associates discovered that “the recent (12 months preceding interview) heroin incidence rate was 19 times higher among those who reported prior nonmedical prescription pain reliever (NMPR) use than among those who did not (0.39 vs. 0.02 percent)” (Muhuri et. al). In other words, abusing prescription opioids significantly raises the chances of abusing illicit drugs, such as heroin.

The opium poppy plant produces substances that act as a pain reliever. Most opioid drugs like morphine and hydrocodone that treat severe pain, contain the products of these poppy plants. Opioids are powerful narcotics that have over the years been taken advantage of but should exclusively be for medical purposes only prescribed by physicians. Nabarun Dasgupta is a pharmaceutical epidemiologist who has a Ph.D. in pharmacy from the University of North Carolina. Nabarun wrote a peer-reviewed article about the opioid crisis and how economic factors intensify the epidemic.

Without patient’s being aware of how to power the drug was, it eventually leads to the Opioids Crisis in America which now put a horrible word for the doctors and companies when it all starts by one person abusing the opioid pill. President Donald J. Trump idea that he had in mind was stated in the article of America’s Opioid Crisis, “But he reinforced the idea that the victims are to blame with an offhand reference to LSD.” Which indeed has the fact that people are to blame for misusage of the

Due to street heroin purity improving in the 1980’s heroin usage increased substantially in the 1990’s. (A Social History of America 's Most Popular

purdue spent hundreds of millions of dollars to convince doctors that oxycontin was safe and not addictive. there marketing strategy worked, their prescriptions for oxycontin skyrocketed but purdue 's claim that oxycontin was safe and not addictive just wasn 't true. as sales skyrocketed so did addiction, overdoses, and death.

There are many drugs sold on the streets that are laced with other substances that can be fatal, and, if too much of any drug is taken, even if it isn’t laced with anything, it can cause an overdose, which can lead to death. One example of a drug that is commonly overdosed on is fentanyl. According to a study published by the New York Times, 21,100 people died from overdoses on fentanyl in 2015 (Katz). This drug, among many others, kills hundreds or thousands of Americans every year. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse for Teens, which is a government run agency, in 2015, 4,235 people ages 15-24 died from overdoses (Drug).

Consistently outweighing those related to natural and semisynthetic opioids, synthetic opioids, methadone, and heroin (Dal Pan, 2016). On the other hand, nonopioid analgesics or NSAID’s like Naproxen or Ibuprofen tend to be the norm for treating mild to moderate nonspecific lower back pain due to anti-inflammatory properties and analgesic properties (Adams

Quinones states, “As the opiate epidemic mangled the middle class, these kids doped up and dropped out. Earlier generations of opiate addicts became self-employed construction workers or painters, because that was all they could manage with heroin, and often jail, in their lives” (274), which is a major problem America faces when trying to solve the opiate epidemic. If we educate the states about the addiction rates and potential danger of opiates, public opinion could shift, creating alternate solutions to solving the heroin epidemic in America. In order to lower the amount of opiate addicts the stigma that used to be associated with opiate use needs to return. The fear that used to surround opiate use was one of the only reasons opiates were not used as medication.

When you think of drug overdose, what do you think about? You probably said Cocaine or Heroin, but what if I told you that there was another drug killing hundreds of thousands of people every year and was somehow going unnoticed. I implore you to read on if you haven’t heard of the shadow epidemic that’s taking American lives everyday. That epidemic is Xanax. Xanax is a very commonly prescribed anti-anxiety drug which became popular in the early 2000s and only continues to rise in popularity as it becomes more of a mainstream recreational drug.

Opioid Epidemic in the United States              The opioid crisis has risen over the years here in America. The addiction to painkillers has caused many drug overdoses across America. According to the Vox," In 2015, more than 52,000 people have died from drug overdoses from linked to opioids such as Percocet, heroin, Oxycontin or even fentanyl. This problem did not become an overnight health crisis, but it has become quickly known in America.             Expanding our drug treatment centers across America would provide the support to those who are addicted to drugs.

Opioids are substances that act on opioid receptors to produce morphine-like effects. Medically they are primarily used for pain relief, including anesthesia. Opioids are also frequently used non-medically for their euphoric effects or to prevent withdrawal symptoms. Examples of opioids are morphine, heroin, oxycodone, and methadone. Opioid overdose is an acute and serious condition due to excessive opioids use.