Intro- Opium- from the Greek word opos, meaning juice or sap, was originally chewed, eaten, or blended into various liquids and swallowed. (Inaba 4-7) It was cultivated in The Mediterranean, and Southwest Asia. Dating all the way back to the 206 B.C., Opium was a major product traded on the Silk Road. This classification of drugs is used primarily to treat pain, diarrhea, and cough. They are known to bring on a sense of euphoria, lower one’s sense of emotional stress or fatigue, and in some instances, suppress opioid withdrawal symptoms. Methods of use are oral injection, smoking, injection, and snorting. Short term effects of use of these drugs can be drowsiness,…
The existence of heroin has been around for ages. Consuming America and everyone inside. “The CDC has shown a dramatic rise in the heroin epidemic” (Newscaster). The epidemic has been building up for a while. However, heroin didn’t pop up out of the blue. Before, pain was relieved by a variety of opiates. They were easy to obtain and legal. Purdue Pharma, a huge, invested drug company, introduced an opiate called oxycontin to doctors. The company, Purdue Pharma “took the…
According to an article on wcax.com, “more Vermonters died from opiate overdoses last year [2011] than murders and traffic fatalities combined.” Some opiates have medically valid uses, while others are recreational drugs of abuse. All are physically addictive, and it has become evident that many people have begun to abuse them. Pharmaceutical drugs have taken over the minds of many Vermonters.…
Opiates are highly addictive powerful drugs that are derived from the poppy plant and are generally used to relieve pain (mayo clinic). There are two types of opiates, natural and man-made. Though both are prescribed by physicians with the exception of heroin, often times when dealing with someone that has become addicted they are obtained illegally. Because of the potential for prescribed…
the chains of addiction there have been many forms for recovery and treatment made available to…
Although people have been using and abusing substances for as long as these substances have existed, the study of of addictions with the exception of alcoholism did not really emerge until the 1960's-1970's. Through out the last decade multiple changes to how addiction is viewed have occurred. Due to advances in the medical field and a better understanding of the chemistry of the brain addiction is now viewed as a disease instead of just a lack of morals. Because of the prevalence of wide spread usage of opiods, cocaine, and marijuana in the 60's and 70's more comprehensive research was deemed necessary to not only treat but effectively prevent drug addiction and alcoholism. It was also during this time frame that different classes of substances were created and we see a shift in how drug offenders were handled from the once harsher punishments to required treatment programs.…
public health.”(Quinones 249) It is difficult to establish the fact that more fatal problem is the widespread addiction to prescription painkillers. Moreover, the suppliers of these drugs are respectable physicians, primary doctors and behind them, multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical companies. Purdue Pharma, as one of the pharmaceutical companies, making on abuse OxyContin [contain large doses of oxycodone that is similar to heroin], as legitimate use as s painkiller in a medical field that lead to the actual overdose deaths and rise in criminal activity in society. Mark Mariani, a writer and educator based in Hoboken, New Jersey, states the facts in his article How the American Opiate Epidemic Was Started by One Pharmaceutical Company, “on December 12, 1995, the Food and Drug Administration approved the opioid analgesic OxyContin. It hit the market in 1996. In its first year, OxyContin accounted for $45 million in sales for its manufacturer, Stamford, Connecticut-based pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma.” () Mariani's point is that, these OxyContin that was intended to revolutionize the treatment of…
Wilm Mistral illustrates the opium wars in this book titled The Emerging Perspectives on Substance Misuse. He explain that in the 1800’s the British began supplying the Chinese with opiates since it it was considered an economic benefit to the UK which then contributed to the Chinese relying heavily on opiates as a way of relieving pain since the active ingredient in it was morphine. At the same time, manufacturing of morphine and heroin began which in 1868 brought the British Pharmacy Act. The pharmacy act was designed to prevent overdose over widespread opiates and held medical professionals responsible for prescribing them. Once opium addicted Chinese immigrants migrated to the U.S. to build the transcontinental railroad on the west coast the American government started demonizing the use of opium by creating literature “portraying opium use as squalid and violent, and purified morphine and heroin became widely available for injection” (Mistral). Opiates were then considered officially illegal in 1914 with the Harrison Narcotics Act (Mistral). The chinese demonization of a once widely spread drug is a prime example the discriminatory politics of drug use in the United States. Through the War on Drugs and the history associated with the…
Opiates are a group of narcotics that contain opium or natural synthetic opium (Shoenfeld, 2012). Some of the commonly abused opiates include: Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Heroin, Codeine, Morphine, and Methadone as well as many other pain medications. They can be crushed and snorted, taken orally, and even injected. The most restrictive legally available drugs are the opiates Methadone and Morphine (Shoenfeld, 2012). They are prescribed for severe pain. Individuals can be prescribed methadone as an option for treatment but in reality is highly addictive and commonly abused.…
Many Americans use drugs to make them happy or ease the pain. They use a variety of drugs legal and illegally. Society needs to recognize the rapid increase of antidepressant and opioid use in the world. America has seen a rise in the usage of antidepressants and opioids in America, primarily due to the cause of depression and Americans trying to escape the real world and their problems. As a society need to realize the rapid increase in the taking of antidepressants and opioids and bring awareness and decrease the rapid increase.…
Opioid use disorder has a long history and started many years ago. When individuals use opioids, it can have serve consequences on the individual, community and the family. In this paper this counselor will provide a history of opioids and how opioids came United States. This paper will discuss how the theory addresses this disorder and proven treatments for the disorder. In this paper the counselor will explain the DSM -5 opioid use disorder criteria and the difference between the severity scales and how the individual may travel through those stages. The paper will discuss the legal and social consequences. Then the paper will discuss the cultural and social issues that affect the individual and how the…
A drug is defined as a substance which has a physiological effect when ingested or introduced to the body and it’s important to understand that drugs, while often helpful, can also be harmful. Prescription drugs are often prescribed to patients to help overcome their ailments but some drugs can become addictive and potentially dangerous. Many people argue that drug abuse would decrease if drugs were decriminalized. These people are often referring to illegal street drugs, yet they fail to consider the problems caused by drugs that are already legal and lawfully distributed. It is also argued that prescription drugs (specifically opioids, depressants, and stimulants) have been on the rise and perhaps even become more problematic than illegal drugs. Not only do these legally distributed drugs get abused, but they also cause health problems and studies show that legal drugs are the cause for more deaths than illegal drugs. (“Prescription Drugs”, National Institute)…
Prescription depressants are responsible for fourteen percent of overdoses while street drugs, such as marijuana, are guilty for thirty-nine percent of drug overdoses (Maxwell 267). Statistics prove the prescription drug epidemic that adolescents and adults face. Teenagers in suburbs and rural areas are more frequently exposed to prescription and illegal opiates due to its marketability and highly addictive properties. As consumers of prescription opiates build a tolerance, the addict begins to find cheaper opiates, such as cocaine and heroin, to satisfy their craving. Prescription opiates, administered by medical doctors, are commonly used to relieve sports injuries and other traumas. Doctors…
The nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century drugs such as marijuana, opiates and cocaine were commonly used in Mexico, special opiates such as morphine and heroin were used as basic medical reasons. Pharmaceuticals such as cocaine, coca wine, and marijuana cigarettes were only prescribed by doctors and can easily be obtained by pharmacies. The Mexican authorizes were concerned about the quality of these products and tried to protect the consumers. In the nineteenth century addicts were considered as ill people and not as criminals now in the twenty first century. There were attempts to control the poppy, marijuana and laudanum since the 1870s, but there was no…
The illegal drugs problem in the country is real and pervasive. It is undermining the moral fabric of our society and is victimizing almost everyone, including even young children in the grade schools. It has become a threat to national security.…