Opioid: The Use Of Narcotics In America

          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.

It is a universally held beleif that addiction ruins lives. Affecting the young and old, male and female, and people from different ethnicities, cultures, and social brackets, addiction is widely regarded as a societal illness with no easy solution. A particularily damaging assumption is that a drug or sex addict, for instance, is the root cause of their own suffering. This can potentially lead to a chain reaction where the guilt placed upon a human being strengthens the desire to escape from said guilt. This is particularily damaging to a teenager, to whom an external stimuli is no longer required after a few years of guilt inflicted by their parents. Causes for and solutions to harmful and addictive behaivour have been explored thoroughly,

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

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.

Addictions to opiates, and opiate derivatives, are some of the most prevalent and long-standing drug abuse issues known. These abuses have also contributed to other social problems such as the spread of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C due to needle injection being a popular method of delivery. In the 1960s, methadone, a synthetic opiate substitute, was introduced as the preferred medical treatment for opiate abuse and addiction and remains so today. Reduction of disease distribution is only one of its heralded benefits. Methadone is commonly used in management of withdrawal symptoms related to addiction to heroin and other opiate drugs, both prescription and non-prescription. According to Plater-Zyberk, Varenburt, Daiter, and Worster (2012), as well as nearly all other researchers, methadone is a safe, effective, and beneficial treatment when taken in a supervised methadone maintenance treatment (MMT). However, there are growing issues with illicit

Heroin is an opioid drug which is created from morphine. It is a naturally occurring substance removed from the seed of the opium poppy plant. Heroin can appear as a white or brown powder or as a black sticky, tar-like substance. There are a number of ways it can be used such as; injected directly into a vein, injected directly into a muscle, placed on aluminum foil and inhaled as smoke through a straw or stem, or snorted as powder through the nose. All of the ways that heroin is used offer a swift delivery to the brain which offers an almost instant high. Heroin is a depressant that is converted back to morphine when it enters the brain. It then attaches to opioid receptors. These receptors are located in many areas of the brain and are that control the sensitivity to pain and reward. After a hit of heroin, users feel a rush of euphoria along with a dry mouth and heavy limbs. After the feeling of euphoria has dissipated the user experiences a consecutively restless and drowsy

Hydrocodone and hydrocodone combination medications were rescheduled from Schedule III controlled substance to Schedule II controlled substances on October 6, 2014. This shift brought about several changes in prescribing practices and has produced several issues for patients who require pain control. Hydrocodone and hydrocodone combinations products should be reclassified as Schedule III controlled substances because patients who truly need this type of pain medication are being denied adequate pain control, in some states mid-level practitioners are no longer able to prescribe these medications, and emergency room physicians often avoid prescribing them even to those who present with obviously painful injuries or conditions.

Availability of opioids puts more and more people at risk for addiction. A simple prescription from the doctor for a migraine or back pain can turn into an addiction. Doctors are faced daily with patients who complain of pain, acute and chronic. It has become a simple solution for them to write out a prescription for pain medication to help their patient. In turn, not helping them at all. The supply chain is short in the use and misuse of opioids. This runs from the prescribing physician to the patient and the prescription drug abuser, which is often the same person. The vast majority of illicitly used prescription opioids are obtained from physicians, not drug dealers. People are seeking out pain medication through their primary physicians

Going into this class, I thought it was just going to another English, but now thinking back I did learn something new. I would like to believe that I was pretty attentive. I did not miss any task, but I did turn in seven task in late; task number two, six, seven, nine, ten, eleven, and fourteen. I did open all of the readings and I would either skim it or I would read it; several times even. My favorite reading was by Bill Ivey and Steven J. Tepper the “Cultural Renaissance or Cultural Divide?”.

Heroin is made from a poppy plants. Chinese may be an influence on psychosocial factors for heroin use. Some of the popular street names for heroin are: big H, H, junk, skag, horse, smack, thunder, hell dust, nose drops. The short-term effects of heroin will appear a little after one dose and disappear in a few hours. Effects of heroin overdose will include the following: slow and shallow breathing, hypotension, muscle spasms, seizures, coma, and possible death. Tolerance develops when the abuser use more heroin to reach the same strength or outcome. Withdrawal, which involves regular users includes: drug craving, restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps kicking movements and other symptoms. Sudden changes in behavior, Loss of interest, Small, restrained pupils, rapidly nodding off, hyper-alertness periodically, shortness of breath are some signs and symptoms of heroin. There are also some signs and symptoms that are: physical, psychological, and behavioral. Withdrawal symptoms may reach its highest between 48 and 72 hours after the last dose, but it decrease at an estimate of a week. The psychosocial effects of heroin can be depression. Heroin is extremely devastating, and users often have can’t stay on a job, relationship problems, legal complications and financial

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,

Opioid is a medicine that makes sedation and relief the pain. It reduces the amount of pain signal that goes to the brain. This medicine works by sticking to some proteins in the brains called opioid receptors, when they are stuck that’s when they reduce the amount of pain. This drug has negative effects, for example they can caused the patient drowsiness, mental confusion, nausea, constipation, and it can also cause depress respiration. Also being addicted to the drug can kill you by overdose or you can experience symptoms when the drug is suddenly reduced or

It’s painful to have your veins collapse. I read this one book written by a heroin junkie; he said as much. I never did heroin, but with all the blows to the body, the blocking with my arms and knees, I can sympathize. You feel like all of the life is draining slowly from you. Because it is. All of the blood leaks out on the inside; trapped by a layer of skin.

Heroin is a very widespread drug American culture today. Heroin is not a new drug, it showed up in the late 1960’s. Heroin is an opium derivative and, as with any of the opium derivatives, there is a strong physical/mental addiction that comes when Heroin is abused. In the mid to late 1800’s, opium was somewhat a popular drug. Retreats where opium could be done were spread throughout the Wild West. The arrival of opium during this period was due in large part to the drug being transported into the country thru Chinese immigrants who came here to work on the railroads. True American history tells us that well-known names of the period like Kit Carson and Wild Bill Hickock actually visited opium dens more frequently than saloons. The stereo-typed