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Opioid Addiction Essay

1880 Words8 Pages

Opioid addiction is on the rise and has been for years now in the U.S. Some of the major contribution to the rise of opioid addiction is people taking prescription medication for various reasons and becoming addicted due to the addictive nature of the drugs prescribed. As of late Doctors have been audited in their practices with prescribing negligently to patients as well as big pharma companies withholding information about the addictive nature of their prescriptions. Back in 2017 Purdue Pharma began being sued for their faulty information about OxyContin being safe and not addictive. Many patients were left with severe addiction to opioids once the prescription was no longer seen as a need, they would turn to a cheaper alternative which is …show more content…

In the mid 1800’s heroin which is a derivative of opium was used throughout the west in what they called opium dens. The majority of users at that time were middle aged men that laid track for railroads and would use opium / heroin to relax after a long hard day work. In 1810 morphine was derivative of opium and used during and after major surgery. Known for giving the effect of euphoria and numbness, doctors liked to use morphine to relax the patient and keep them pain free. Unfortunately, the very addictive properties of morphine / opium went unnoticed until the end of Civil …show more content…

I have met many addicts in my line of work and they vary from well-educated individuals to young and misguided. It is sad that as a society we look at addiction with a moral lens instead of the disease lens. Stigma among addicts is the cruelest form of abuse in this community. It cause families to hide the addiction of their loved ones and in turn the turmoil manifest into deep dependency on heroin. If we could stop the stigma and get to the bottom of addiction, in my opinion we could change the everyday dilemma of death by

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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.

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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.

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Prescription drugs (opiates only) have caused over 165,000 deaths within the last 15 years and is currently on the rise. Over 2 million Americans in 2014 were addicted to Opiate prescription narcotics. The most troubling fact is listed directly on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website: “As many as 1 in 4

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This enormous conundrum is being ignored by several professionals and doctors. The “heroin and prescription opioid epidemic” is something more people should pay attention to. Opioids are a “class of drugs” (Page 1) that includes heroin, and other powerful, legal pain relievers. Opioids are valuable medicines that can produce emotions of pleasure and happiness. They are frequently misused by being taken in a greater quantity than prescribed, or without a doctor’s prescription.

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The number of deaths for prescription drugs in America has risen from 10,000 to 25,000 deaths; for males- 15,000 and for females- 10,000. The number of fatal overdoses from prescription opioid pain relievers in America has risen from 6,000 to 20,000 deaths; for males- 12,000 and for females- 8,000. The number for heroin fatalities from overdoses in America has risen from 2,000 to 10,000 deaths; the number for males- 8,000 and for females- 2,000 deaths. All of these numbers were since 2014. These opioid drugs have an impact mostly on males seeing that have the highest numbers of overdoses across the country, while some females overdose but also females are using it just for the high affect.

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“Everyday, more than 115 people in the United States die after overdosing on opioids,” (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2018, Opioid Overdose Crisis). Opioid drug abuse has become a growing issue in the United States since the late 1990s. “In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers, and healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates,” (Public Affairs, 2018, What is the U.S. Opioid Epidemic?). Opioids can be either prescription medications such as morphine, however heroin is also considered to be an opioid. Opioids have been proven to be highly addictive, and there has been an increase in misuse and overdose of opioid drugs.

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There are about two million people in the United States who are addicted to opioids, and ever since the 1990’s, the problem has continued to increase. Thousands of people are dying from overdoses every year, and unborn children’s lives are being put at risk. Shawn Bishop, a resident at Hope House (an addiction treatment center in Boston) who is just one of two million, became addicted after a prescription of opioids from his dentist. Most people started abusing opioids after getting a prescription from their doctor or dentist as well. If opioids are so dangerous, then why do doctors, dentists, and clinics continue to prescribe them?

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One of the types of opioids commonly used is heroin. Heroin is a drug modification of morphine, which is additionally used. Although, drug addicts consume vast amounts of drugs, all of these cultures and races have all witnessed and experienced the negative effect that drugs portray in one’s life. Heroin worsens the brain in which provokes brain disease. Considering heroin having a portion of morphine, people also use this type of drug to get themselves high.

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America is in the midst of an epidemic that is growing at an exponential rate: opioid addiction. Despite laws and regulations, the use and abuse of opioids is increasing at an alarming rate, raising the death toll with it. America’s opioid epidemic affects the the lives of roughly two million citizens and counting each year. Contrary to past popular belief, Doctors and pharmaceutical corporations are among the largest distributors of opioid substances and deadly narcotics. Painkillers prescribed by doctors are some of the most addictive and deadly substances in the narcotic industry.

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The Opioid Addiction Crisis is the worst troublesome addiction crisis in American history. Each year, drug overdoses is responsible for more than 64,000 deaths and the nation’s life expectancy has dropped for two years in a row. Opioids are substances that act on opioid receptors to produce effects similar to morphine in hopes to relief pain. An Ohio deputy sheriff named Bender has stated a powerful statement reading, “Opioids reach every part of society; blue collar, white collar, everybody. It’s nonstop, it every day.

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With the promotion of the prescription opioids as safe by pharmacutical companies in the 1990s, medical professionals began to prescribe them as higher rates. At the time it was believed that prescription pain relievers were nonaddictive, because they were marketed as such,

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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

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With the given statistics continuing to grow, “by 2050, antibiotic resistant infections will claim ten million lives at a cost of $20 trillion, far outstripping the number of lives and costs claimed by cancer in the same time period” (Tenover ❡9). Antibiotics and prescription medication are world-renowned for the benefits they can provide, from curing horrible diseases to treating sickness in everyday life. However, abuse of these same medications has crossed the line and can cause as much, if not more, damage than good. The impulsive prescription of antibiotics as a first, or “go to” answer for patient needs is endangering the human body by creating antibiotic resistant bacteria.

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Addicts are viewed as weak and worthless because of their so called “choice”. It is sad to think that one bad choice could cause someone to be shunned by an entire nation. Especially because a lot of addicts become that way become that way because of some tragic incident. Look how many veterans turn to drugs or alcohol after they return from combat. They go from national hero to lowlife zero with one mistake.

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Thousands of people started becoming addicted to morphine. In 1874 the discovered the answer to the problem. Researchers discovered “Heroin” this was the non-addictive substitute for morphine. This slowly became the next drug epidemic. Until 1920, the distribution of Heroin was legal in the United States, but by the time the law was passed against it in 1925 there were already 200,000 addicts in the country.

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