Opioid Prescription Drugs

Questionable methods of pain relief have been practiced on this planet since the stone ages. Luckily, modern advancements in medicine have granted us safe and quick options for relieving pain. Analgesics, often referred to as painkillers, are drugs that work by targeting the peripheral and central nervous systems. They are important because they are responsible for alleviating our headaches, body aches, fever, and inflammation. Non-opioid analgesics include acetaminophen and non- steroidal inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) such as aspirin; they are typically used for mild pain.

The pain class of drugs makes up a huge portion of the global pharmaceutical market, specifically 300 million prescriptions, just second to cancer medication. This market is worth about $24 billion and a large portion of this market is made up of opioids1. Raw opium from the opioid plant was being consumed for pain purposes for hundreds of years from the early 1500’s to the early 1800’s. It was not until 1804 when German pharmacist, Friedrich Sertürner, isolated the alkaloid, Morphine, from the opium poppy plant with the purpose to make a drug with a safer alternative than consuming raw opium. Not only was Morphine the first opioid drug to be isolated straight from the opium poppy

The article “In Heroin Crisis, White Families Seek Gentler War on Drugs” by Katharine Q. Seelye, targets the families and the fatalities of their loved ones to raise awareness on the impact of heroin addiction and the life-long destruction physically, emotionally, and mentally it displays. The article focuses on the effort and empathy law enforcement are enacting on the victims of drug abusers. Progressively, law enforcement is constructing ways to restrict the amount of incarceration and punishment to addicts. The article’s pattern is cause and effect, tied with description and the purpose being informative using facts and statistics to back the claims along with expressive as there is definitely moments of sentiment to catch the audience’s feelings. The primary purpose of this article would definitely be informative as the author uses many statistics and facts to inform the audience how serious heroin addiction can be.

Doctors are prescribing opioids to patients for chronic pain which has led patients to misuse and become addicted, causing a severe epidemic with this growing society. Costing both governmental and private health insurers estimated billions of dollars annually, opioid abuse has been known to cause insurance costs to increase due to liability claims and government agencies assisting with social services. State monitoring program systems have urged prescribing physicians to use proper precautions to check their databases prior to prescribing painkillers. There have been guidelines which have been put in place to monitor all types of opioids and dosages being prescribed by physicians for patients making them aware of the consequences if these guidelines are not followed. Aside from doctors overprescribing painkillers, there are concerns of the

“Bath salts are a synthetic drug that create feelings of euphoria and can be taken by smoking, snorting, and injecting the substance. Users often re-dose as the effects only last for 3-4 hours, and may stay up for several days. Bath salts are seen as a cheap alternative to cocaine, ecstasy or methamphetamine. Side effects of bath salts may include insomnia, agitation, hallucinations, and even violent behavior upon first use. Long-term use can lead to liver and kidney damage, as well as a breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue.

When instructed to take medicines prescribed by doctors, there is rarely any second thought put in before taking those pills. Knowing the side effects of your medications and knowing proper dosages is something that should be done religiously. Opiate overdoses have become one of the leading causes of death in America, this is largely due to doctors not following policy and prescribing addictive narcotics for inappropriate ailments, which leads to addiction, and can destroy the lives of those around them. Patients should be able to trust doctors and know that they are in safe hands, however it now seems as this is not always the case. Doctors are overprescribing addictive medicines and failing to follow proper policy for prescribing those medicines.

What first comes to mind when hearing the word marijuana? Is it the red-eyed teenagers in the area who smoke this drug for the recreational purpose? Or is it the beneficial medical history associated with medical marijuana? The on-going issue of legalizing marijuana has consumed much of the nation’s attention for the positive and negatives it withholds. In the world’s history, many different countries have found marijuana to be very useful in aiding medical cases.

Seeing people suffer and struggle with their medical conditions is one sign that it’s time to stop and help those people. I’m not a person who does drugs, but if there is one out there that can help many people, then it’s time to do something. Marijuana is a drug that can help thousands of people with cancer, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, autism and so many more. People are taking medicines that aren’t even helping and they just keep getting more medicines thrown at them and they are just suffering because they haven’t found the right medicine that can help keep their disabilities at bay. Medical marijuana can be an answer to a lot of people’s problems.

Drugs are a contradiction. They were created to benefit humanity but simultaneously became one of humanity 's downfall. As time moved forward, science grew as more people began to become invested in a new study where possibilities seemed endless. One of the sub-categories was medication and more research was conducted which resulted in the increase in addictive substances. While medication has done wonders to help end and prevent diseases, there was always a drawback in taking them, which ranged from headaches to drowsiness.

Drug use is an issue that affects individuals, families, communities, and all levels of government, not just in the United States, but also around the world (Hart, Ksir 2015). According to Carl Hart and Charles Ksir, the word “drug” can be defined as “any substance, natural or artificial, other than food, that by its chemical nature alters structure or function in the living organism” (Hart, Ksir 2015). As human beings, one is naturally curious about the different things in society and may have an urge to experience those things themselves. In regard to illegal drugs, individuals may want to experience it and the effect on it may have eon them since it varies by each individual.