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Effects of opioids use essay
Essays on the effect of opioids
The effects of opioids essay
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Opioids, an important topic to talk about yet and an exceedingly large amount of people don’t know what they are. Do you know what they are? Opioids are a specific type of drug that are used mainly as a narcotic or a pain reliever. They are acceptable when they are used as prescribed by a doctor, but when people overuse them then it becomes a problem. Opioids can become terrible elements in someone life once people over use them and abuse them. Opioids are drugs that should only be prescribed. They are addictive, deadly, and can hurt the users’ family relationships. Opioids are highly addictive and can keep people from using them properly. People might say it's the users fault and they should be able to control themselves, but it's not something you can just …show more content…
Once people get addicted they suffer from plenty of problems. Mothers who are pregnant that abuse opioids are seeing that their babies are “suffering from neonatal "addiction"--babies who are physiologically dependent on opioids, though not technically addicted, and who require careful weaning with small doses of methadone, an anti-addiction drug(Sally Satel).” More people are being killed from overdoses since they are so addicted. Since 1999, the addiction rates of opioids has caused “200,000 Americans [to die] from overdoses connected to OxyContin and similar prescription opioids. Addicts who can no longer source or afford prescription drugs often turn to heroin(Xan Rice).” Since people are turning towards heroin they are now starting to buy from dealers and could get infected due to sharing needles. People are starting to notice the amount of people that die from suicide, drugs and opioids, alcohol, and drug related diseases is rising. The “deaths of despair(Xan Rice)”, deaths from suicide, drugs, etc., are starting to rise dramatically and are causing people to want to to more about what is happening. Opioids once abused start taking a toll on a user’s
On the typical day, over 90 people will die at the hand of opioid abuse in America alone (National). In fact, as of 2014, nearly 2 million Americans were dependent and abusing opioids. The Opioid Crisis has affected America and its citizens in various ways, including health policy, health care, and the life in populous areas. Due to the mass dependence and mortality, the crisis has become an issue that must be resolved in all aspects.
The documentary states that over 27,000 deaths a year are due to overdose from heroin and other opioids. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2015 prescription pain relievers account for 20,101 overdose deaths, and 12,990 overdose deaths are related to heroin (Rudd et al., 2010-2015). The documentary’s investigation gives the history of how the heroin epidemic started, with a great focus on the hospice movement. We are presented with the idea that once someone is addicted to painkillers, the difficulty in obtaining the drug over a long period of time becomes too expensive and too difficult. This often leads people to use heroin. This idea is true as a 2014 survey found that 94% of respondents who were being treated for opioid addiction said they chose to use heroin because prescription opioids were “more expensive and harder to obtain (Cicero et al., 2014).” Four in five heroin users actually started out using prescription painkillers (Johns, 2013). This correlation between heroin and prescription painkiller use supports the idea presented in the documentary that “prescription opiates are heroin prep school.”
Almost one hundred years ago, prescription drugs like morphine were available at almost any general store. Women carried bottles of very addictive potent opiate based pain killers in their purse. Many individuals like Edgar Allen Poe died from such addictions. Since that time through various federal, state and local laws, drugs like morphine are now prescription drugs; however, this has not stopped the addiction to opiate based pain killers. Today’s society combats an ever increasing number of very deadly addictive drugs from designer drugs to narcotics to the less potent but equally destructive alcohol and marijuana. With all of these new and old drugs going in and out of vogue with addicts, it appears that the increase of misuse and abuse is founded greater in the prescription opiate based painkillers.
In the United States, opioid addiction rates have majorly increased . Between 2000-2015 more than half a million individuals have died from Opioid overdose, and nearly 5 million people have an opioid dependence which has become a serious problem. The Center for Disease control reports that there are 91 deaths daily due to opioid abuse. Taking opioids for long periods of time and in
Almost everybody on Long Island, and probably all around the world, has been prescribed a drug by a doctor before— whether it was to knock out a nasty virus, or relieve pain post injury or surgery. However, what many people don’t realize is that these drugs can have highly addictive qualities, and more and more people are becoming hooked, specifically teenagers. But when does harmlessly taking a prescription drug to alleviate pain take the turn into the downward spiral of abuse? The answer to that question would be when the user begins taking the drug for the “high” or good feelings brought along with it—certainly not what it was prescribed for (1). The amount of teens that abuse prescription medications has been rapidly increasing in recent
Also, simply increasing the number of addiction treatment centers around the United States would likely get people help with their addiction. There are people who want to end their addiction, and there are people who do not want to end their addiction. The American people should not try and help the people who do not want help because if they are forced to get help or forced to go to a treatment center. When someone gets out of the treatment center they can go back to doing drugs again. Then, it is their choice and the American people’s time and money wasted. People who die from Opioid drug addiction are also people who disobeyed the law by illegally purchasing the drug, and put themselves at risk from the
...ld be reduced medically, but cannot be done because of their addictive demeanor. Long term use in addicts of prescription medication does have long lasting effects on brain function and neuron connections within the brain. This is because of the rapid firing of opioid receptors that are being mimicked by the opioid drug of choice, and eventually these connections will die off.
The opioid crisis includes a web of relationships and difficulties. However, some communities have created programs that strengthen the individual and the community.
Every year, 2.6 million people in the United States suffer from opioid abuse and of that 2.6 million, 276,000 are adolescents, and this problem is only escalating. An individual’s physical and emotional health suffers as well as their personal lives as they lose employment, friends, family, and hope. Opioid addiction begins with the addictive aspects of the drug. People easily become hooked on the relieving effects of the opioids and suffer withdrawal symptoms if they stop using the drug completely because their nerve cells become accustomed to the drug and have difficulty functioning without it; yet the addiction to the drug is only one aspect of the complex problem. The stigma about opioid addiction has wide-reaching negative effects as it discourages people with opioid abuse problems from reaching out.
By the year 2000 opioid medicine containing oxycodone etc., are being abused and misused and more than doubled in 10 years’ time.
For one, addiction would be the biggest problem due to a person's need for more and more opioids in order to function. Opioid abuse has also been known to weaken a person's immune system and in turn making they more likely to get sick. Also, if a person did not die from a opioid related overdose, they could end up in a coma because of it. Even if a person were to stop using opioids all together, they could have lifelong health problems due to their previous use of opioids. This is more common with the opioid Heroin since it is often used by syringe. Many Heroin users have contracted HIV/AIDS as well as Hepatitis because they tend to share needles with other people who may have these diseases.
More than ⅓ of Americans will use narcotics in their lifetime and nearly 10% of the American population is addicted to narcotics (“Narcotic Facts”). These drugs can be very addictive, even when they are taken as prescribed. When taken for recreational use, a tolerance develops quickly which will eventually lead to a dependence. Narcotics make up a great number of the most abused drug to cause criminal activity and addiction which requires medical treatment. A majority of people who are addicted to painkillers do not realize they have a problem. Not only that, but little research actually goes into quite a few of the medications prescribed. Drug companies are known to sometimes be less than honest with the FDA to rush drugs into the market before their competitors have the chance to. Many doctors do not know of this. Also, when drug companies to have honest reports, testing of the drug occurs to groups of healthy populated people. People who would suffer adverse reactions to the drug would not be included in the testing of the medication. According to a 2014 Newsweek articles, it is stated that “even systematic reviews, which help set standard medical practices, are subject to the influence of drug companies… The consequences of exclusion or delay of trial data have ranged from frustration to mass fatalities” (Wolford). It was very common for a patient to have their prescription stolen. There have been many incidents of users breaking into homes to raid pill cabinets or even snag a bottle off of a loved ones. As long as opiates are exposed to the outside world, users will be willing to do anything to get their hands on a bottle. This dependence is due to the strength of effects these pills can release on the human body. Because narcotics are such strong painkillers, there is the chance of the natural opioid system in the body will be blocked by the substituted amount of chemicals being
Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about the dangers of prescription drugs when not taken as prescribed by your physician or pharmacist.
First let me start off by saying that this video was extremely eye opening. It put into perspective just how serious this “war” on drugs is. It’s not necessarily a war on the drugs themselves, but it has cascaded onto the people who consume and sell them as well. I always had my beliefs that our drug laws had their defects, but after hearing what the people who were interviewed had to say, it reinforced and expanded my belief that something needs to be done about this in order to stop the racial profiling and corruption that come with these laws, as well as the efforts to get rid of the lower class. Poverty is a very hard thing to cope with.
Drug abuse has been a hot topic for our society due to how stimulants interfere with health, prosperity, and the lives of others in all nations. All drugs have the potential to be misapplied, whether obtained by prescription, over the counter, or illegally. Drug abuse is a despicable disease that affects many helpless people. Majority of those who are beset with this disease go untreated due to health insurance companies who neglect and discriminate this issue. As an outcome of missed opportunities of treatments, abusers become homeless, very ill, or even worst, death.