How Opioids Affect Friends

Imagine a life where someone is controlled by something that doesn't have a pulse, controlled by a substance that they can see ruining their life but for some reason they can't control the outcome. Substance abuse costs the health care system about $11 billion, with overall costs reaching $193 billion. That $11 Billion dollars could go to treating the addiction rather than treating the outcome, and instead of locking up low level drug offenders, we as a society should help them through their difficult time. And according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), approximately 27 million Americans, or 10.2% of the American population over the age of 12 reported using illicit drugs in 2014. 10% of our society is

          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.

Opioids have been a troubling problem in the United States for many years. In the recent past, since the yearly 2000’s, opioid overdoses have been on a steady incline. With heroin becoming the drug of choice in many cities across the country, overdoses relating to heroin are on the rise. Many states and cities are attempting to reverse the epidemic. Making naloxone, an overdose reversal drug, readily available for emergency responders or even those individuals overdosing, could cause a decrease in overdose related fatalities.

we are living through the worst epidemic of addiction in american history, and the drugs causing the most deaths are legal prescription opioids like oxycontin, percocet, and vicodin. How did so many of us get addicted to painkillers? and why are so many americans dying from drug overdoses? to find out you have to go back to the early 90s. Before that time doctors generally considered opioids dangerous but in 1996 a company called purdue pharma released a new drug ,oxycontin. 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.

Losing a battle to illness is devastating and utterly heartbreaking. With addiction, it is quite often that people fail and fall into their old habits. Others simply don’t want to be sober. In How to Help Someone with an Opioid Addiction, published by the Chicago Sun Times, the author lists ways for friends and family members to assist in the process of sobriety. But, what if it doesn’t work? This question is addressed in the third section of the article. For that reason, the author writes with a rhetoric of pathos to encourage the reader to persevere and also purchase Naloxone, a drug which can alter the effects of opioids in case of emergency.

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. Thus, the increased prescription of addictive opiates has also helped cause the increase in addiction to illegal

These pills, such as xanax and oxycodone allow people for short periods of time to withdraw from the harsh reality faced today. “Between 1997 and 2002, sales of oxycodone and methadone nearly quadrupled” (Okie). Around 15 years later and the prescription pill problem is continuing to skyrocket. Since prescription pills are dispersed out to anyone by doctors, many people do not realize that it is as much of an illicit drug as cocaine and heroin is. “Misinformation about the addictive properties of prescription opioids and the perception that prescription drugs are less harmful than illicit drugs are other possible contributors to the problem” (NIDA). 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

A percentage of the population doesn’t consider prescription drugs very dangerous because they are prescribed by doctors. Unfortunately, that's true and it is very concerning to other people who are aware of the problem. We as a community must help each other and inform each other about the effects prescription drugs have. These types of drugs develop addicts which can be treated effectively depending the type of drug they took. There are two main treatments behavioral treatment and medications. Behavioral treatment helps addicts change unhealthy ways of thinking, counseling and sometimes psychotherapy. Medication treatment might sound wrong, why give them other prescribed drugs?. The addict suffers withdrawals symptoms and to help them stop using opioids, we supply them with other none dangerous drugs which close to the same effect. Treatment is possible, we just gotta reduce the epidemic among our young

An immoral way would be to allow all people who overdose to die, with no chance of using Narcan to resuscitate them, thus causing widespread fear of the use of heroin and opiates. Narcan is a drug that is used to revive someone in the event of an overdose, but timing is critical, if you wait to long to administer the Narcan the person will die. A morally acceptable way would be to lower the amount of drug users. Doctors have taken a number of precautions such as limiting the amount of painkillers a patient can receive and even taking strong drugs off the market. These precautions have done very little to stop the use of opiates. 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. As long as opiates are being used as a way to physically and mentally escape from pain, America will continue to suffer from opiate

Opioids are a prescription medication involving various forms of drugs, it can benefit patients as little as a few minutes, however, it can be extremely dangerous to patients without self-control.

There are many people that have been through this. Rachell Allen, a mother of three, talked about opioids and how they ruined her life. Allen’s kids left the house and she separated with her husband. Allen knew she was in trouble. She started to control her addiction and started talking to her kids again. Many others are not lucky enough to be able to do what Rachel did, or do

Admitting that you have an addiction or recognizing that someone else is suffering from it and offering a helping hand, can help save a life. oxycodone is nothing to mess with, as it is quite a real and possibly deadly

I have always thought about working in the medical field, but where was the question. I started looking at the field of nursing. My mom works as a nurse so it was obvious that I start there. From my research I found out all of the great things about being a nurse. This research answered my question. Nursing offers endless opportunities to anyone and it is one of the only fields that will always be in demand.

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. Dependence on prescription opioids can stem from treatment of chronic pain and in recent years is the cause of the increased number of opioid overdoses. Opioids are very addictive substances, having serious life threatening consequences in case of intentional or accidental overdose. The euphoria attracts recreational use, and frequent,

According to Michael Klein, “The most prescription drugs that are commonly misused are opioids, tranquillizers, sedatives, and hypnotics.” Unintentional overdose deaths involving opioid pain relievers have quadrupled since 1999 and have outnumbered those involving heroin and cocaine since 2002. (Klein). The reason some people abuse opioids is just to “get high”. Taking too many of these types of pills can really mess you up. Abusing opioids can really affect your body more than you think. Also getting addicted can tear families apart and you could lose a lot. Some people may think they are safe taking prescription drugs but in reality abusing them is not healthy at all.