ipl-logo

Persuasive Essay On Opioids

423 Words2 Pages

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. This drug dependence can lead to death through an overdose. Heroin can be injected, snorted, smoked or even mixed with crack cocaine. The practice of these deadly drugs for feelings of contentment must be stopped. To quote the article, The Opioid Epidemic, “drug overdose …are now the leading …show more content…

Additionally, “Over the last two decades….as prescription for opioids began to soar, rates of addiction and overdose deaths increased in parallel.” (The Opioid Epidemic). The escalation in opioid prescription is fueled by a campaign by pharmaceutical companies. The campaign minimized opioid risks and exaggerated the benefits of using opioids. Many have filed lawsuits against manufacturers for their role in causing the opioid addiction epidemic by misleading the medical community. Young people who are addicted to prescription opioids commonly switch to heroin. Heroin is a cheaper option, and is rumored to have a higher potency than regular prescription opioids. People who suffer from addiction are unable to reach treatment programs. Patients who are able to obtain solutions “must often visit private practice physicians who do not accept commercial insurance…” (The Opioid Epidemic). This makes it extremely difficult to reduce the number of people reliant on these drugs. To conclude, the damage from the “heroin and prescription opioid epidemic” cannot be solved without changes to the way doctors operate. People need to implement systems to address this

Show More
Related
1557 Words | 7 Pages

Sam Quinones’ Dreamland is a commentary about the opioid problem in America. Quinones draws attention to how in the twentieth century opioids were seen as addictive: “[D]octers treating the terminally ill faced attitudes that seemed medieval when it came to opiates” (184). In the 1970s, Purdue Pharma stated that opioids such as morphine were not addictive substances. After this study was released, many doctors began to view opioids as a viable option for pain relief. Throughout the rest of the book, Quinones explains the shift from doctors never prescribing opiates to prescription opiates being used to treat any sort of pain: chronic back pain, arthritis, severe headaches, etc.

Read More
1306 Words | 6 Pages

There was improvement in many areas of the country following the crackdown on prescription drug abuse and pill mills. However, another result of the crackdownwas a diminution in the availability of prescription painkillers and the price for the painkillers on the street became more expensive. The ones who became addicted to painkillers during the pill mill epidemic then turned to heroin. The crackdown of pill mills inadvertently fueled the epidemic of heroin. “Between 2007 and 2012, heroin use rose 79 percent nationwide, according to federal data.

Read More
935 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
737 Words | 3 Pages

For these reasons one can agree that addicts are not to blame for the opioid crisis because opioids are imprudently and over prescribed, produce money, and (FDA) approved.    Americans are being overprescribed with medication to self-medicate oneself 24/7 for three (3) weeks according to the article by Mc Greal. With the mass prescribing it can lead patients to become less tolerant thereby leading them to take more

Read More
474 Words | 2 Pages

Since the opioid crisis is so widespread and vastly growing, attention is brought to a nation level. Victims of the opioid crisis mainly stem from normal lives, obtaining opioids as a form of legitimate pain management for medical reasons. Upon prolonged use of these opioids

Read More
1087 Words | 5 Pages

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

Read More
596 Words | 3 Pages

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,

Read More
685 Words | 3 Pages

Opioid Epidemic in the United States              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.             Expanding our drug treatment centers across America would provide the support to those who are addicted to drugs.

Read More
653 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
582 Words | 3 Pages

“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.

Read More
1505 Words | 7 Pages

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?

Read More
1689 Words | 7 Pages

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.

Read More
540 Words | 3 Pages

In 2016, over 64,000 people deaths were recorded that were opioid-related. The percentage increase of opioid-related deaths among adults aged 55-64 jumped from 4.2 per 100,000 people in 1999 to 21.8 in 2015 (Green 2017). There is numerous amount of reasons a person can get addicted to opioids; it may begin as an experiment, many are curious on how and what it feels like, and peer pressure from fellow friends. Another reason someone may abuse opioid is they begin taking their prescribed opioids due to surgery or chronic pain, but they are cut off from them, and they now have become addicted and need more (Green

Read More
1036 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
970 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More

More about Persuasive Essay On Opioids

Related Topics

Open Document