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.
Drug abuse is the habitual taking of addictive or illegal drugs in order to feel a euphoria, treat pain, or help with sleeping disorders. Drug abuse is a chronic brain disease that causes drug use despite the harmful consequences to the user and the people around them. In Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury, the dystopian society portrayed is oblivious to the impact of the censorship around them. Books are banned and if found, they are burned along with their houses. The people in this society do not have time to think about anything because they are constantly surrounded by the constant chaos of loud noises on commercials or televisions and are over stimulated. Addiction and drug abuse is used as a way to escape the harsh problems in society.
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.
When someone has an addiction to Xanax, they may need to go through Xanax detox. This highly potent benzodiazepine can becoming habit forming if it is used for an extended period of time. While it is used medicinally to treat panic attacks and anxiety, this does not mean that Xanax is safe to use.
Oxycodone can be prescribed to help with moderate to severe pain. It is an opioid and belongs to the class of narcotic analgesics. It works as a depressant, slowing down the pain signals travelling from our body to our brain, and altering the way your brain responds to pain. This makes your body feel and respond to pain in a different manner as well. Doctors most commonly prescribe Oxycodone to help relieve the patient from moderate to severe pain.
Born on April 13, 1961 Robert William Fisher was born to a single mother in Brooklyn, New York. The struggles of a single parent caused Robert to experience a troubled childhood, which trickled over to his adulthood. Trying develop a better life for his family, he became a surgical technician, which paid for his schooling to become a respiratory therapist. Even with the support of his wife, life became difficult due to substance abuse. The drug of choice was crack cocaine, classified as a tertiary amine, which has three carbon atoms bonded directly to the nitrogen atom and general formula is R3N (Johll pg. 242, 2007). Smoking crack cocaine was a strong addiction, which needed professional help. Finding a new career as a firefighter was
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. If a person is to type in Fentanyl in the search bar in google you will see reports of overdoses or deaths related to this rapidly spreading and dangerous drug. Earlier this year
I. Importance: As American deaths from drug overdoses continue to rise in the United States, the nation is faced with a public health crisis so profound that in October 2017, President Trump declared the opioid epidemic to be a national public health emergency (Merica). President Trump’s declaration came after numerous studies indicating the danger opioid addiction posed; for example, a 2016 study entitled “Increases in Drug and Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths—United States, 2010-2015” claimed that drug overdose deaths “nearly tripled during 1999-2014,” reaching a startling high 52,404 deaths in 2015 (Rudd, et al). These statistics are more than just disturbing revelations regarding the opioid crisis; they are evidence of a serious problem that is rapidly affecting the lives of more and more Americans every year.
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.
Prescription drug abuse in the United States has officially been declared an epidemic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Prescription Drug Abuse Statistics, 2013). Due to the increase of prescription drug abuse, prescription narcotics have been considered the new “gateway” drug to heroin addiction. The prescription drug epidemic is being fueled by prescribers and physicians that are not utilizing proper guidelines when prescribing narcotics to patients. A major concern is that doctors are shying away from utilizing therapy and counseling, which could alleviate the use and abuse of prescription medication. With the increase of prescription medication flooding the population, this has lead to society’s concern that doctors are
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that since 1999 the number of overdose deaths involving opioids has quadrupled. The number of opioid involved deaths continues to increase in the United States. That 91 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. The driving factor in the overdoses is from prescription opioids
As many drugs are prescribed, only so many are abused causing physical and mental damage to one person. There are many drugs that rip people apart and make them someone whom they never were. Just as in Frankenstein, there is a monster in the eyes of many and a creation that one person worshipped. Almost as if Frankenstein needed the creation like a drug which later changed his future getting to his head .The actions soon taken can be described as uncontrollable according to the creation , “ I was like a wild beast that had broken the toils , destroying the objects that obstructed me and ranging through the wood with a stag-like swiftness” ( Shelley’s 5) . In this quote, the creation is obstructed feeling destroyed inside as if something can't
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,
Within the last 22 years, from 1991 to 2013, the prescriptions written by doctors for opioids have increased from 76 million to 207 million. Opioids are a drug class that were developed originally, to treat severe pain for people who are dying of cancer or other severe illnesses. This began when pharmaceutical companies assured the medical community that people would not become addicted to opioid pain relievers. As a result doctors began to prescribe opioids more frequently. There are different kinds of opioids. Semi-synthetic opioids include hydromorphone, hydrocodone, and oxycodone. There is also heroin, made from morphine. Opioids that are man made are fentanyl, pethidine, levorphanol, methadone, tramadol, and dextropropoxyphene. Doctors should not be allowed to prescribe opioids to people to relieve pain because of the many dangers, it poses. Prescribing opioids to people can kill them or turn them into addicts.
Every citizen in the United States has individual rights protected by the Constitution. This protection also includes businesses that have gone through the legal process to become a legal entity ; more commonly known as becoming a corporation. Many times these individual rights, protected by the Constitution, conflict with the common good and as history shows, the courts consistently side with the common good when faced with a case that pits these two against each other. Big Pharma are corporations exercising their individual rights to market, and sell their product to consumers. In the process, the common good is suffering. We need to pass legislation that balances corporation’s individual rights to freely promote, market, and sell legal