Preview

Opiates: Drug Addiction and Heroin

Best Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2574 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Opiates: Drug Addiction and Heroin
Opiates:
Heroin, Pain Pills, and Methadone Opiate use in the United States and all over the world is destructive to society and the user. From heroin to a prescription from your family doctor, opiate use is everywhere. In this paper I will discuss the history of heroin, withdrawal, the prescription pain pill epidemic, short and long term effects, and other general information on opiates and their use.
History of Heroin Heroin was first created by C.R. Alder Wright in 1874. His purpose was to find a non-addictive form of opium that still had the same properties for pain relief. While boiling morphine and certain chemicals together, he came up with a more powerful and potent form of morphine and it was even more addictive. It was not to be used again until the 1890’s. In 1897, Felix Hoffman and the company he worked for, “Bayer,” were looking for a new pain reliever. Felix Hoffman started working with acetylsalicylic acid and diacetylmorphine in hopes of developing a new medicine. They found that acetylsalicylic acid was good for minor aches and pains, and that diacetylmorphine was helping various breathing problems such as tuberculosis, asthma, and bronchitis (Opium, page 2). In 1898, “Bayer” started selling diacetylmorphine as heroin. It would not take long before the government would step in. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made all narcotics illegal. This made heroin addicts either buy it on the street or get a written prescription by a doctor. In 1918 the laws were made even stricter and in 1924, there was a ban on all forms of opium (Opium, page 3).
Methods of Heroin Use The most common use of heroin is injection. It is injected into the vein using a hypodermic needle. This is the fastest way for heroin to reach the brain and the onset of euphoria takes seven to eight seconds. Intravenous injection gives the greatest intensity. Intramuscular injections give the slowest onset of approximately five to eight minutes. Other forms of use are



Cited: 1. Anonymous. Heroin Withdrawal Symptoms. 2007. 12 Apr. 2008. <http://www.softlandingrecovery.com/articles/heroin_withdrawal.html> 2 3. Anonymous. The Effects of Heroin – abuse & addiction. 2005. 12 Apr. 2008 <http://www.guide4living/drugabuse/heroin-effects.htm> 4 7. Leduc, Marc. Addiction to Methadone and Other Opiates. 2003. 25 May. 2008. <http://www.healingdaily.com/exercise/methadone.htm> 8 11. National Institute on Drug Abuse. “What is Heroin?” Heroin Abuse and Addiction. 2005 9 Apr. 2008. <http://www.nida.nih.gov/ResearchReports/heroin/heroin2.html> 12 13. Richter, R.W. “Cerebral Complication of Heroin ‘Overdose’” Neurological Complications of Addiction to Heroin. 1973. 25 May. 2008. <http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerender.fcgi?artid=1806907&pageindex=4#page>

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    HUS 211 Substance Abuse

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages

    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,…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Diacetylmorphine, aka: heroin, smack, horse, black tar, china white, and H, the slang names are as numerous as the places you can score this highly addictive narcotic. Heroin, a derivative of morphine, via opium, which comes from the resin of the Papaver somniferum plant has been in use for nearly 3500 years (Doweiko,2012, p.137). To understand the fascination, addiction, and potential therapies of heroin, we must first understand its history.…

    • 1743 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    History of Heroin

    • 1306 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Heroin is named after the German word for hero, heroisch. Heroin is an illegal, highly addictive drug. It is both the most abused and the most rapidly acting of the opiates. Heroin is processed from morphine, a naturally occurring substance extracted from the seed pod of certain varieties of poppy plants. It is typically sold as a white or brownish powder or as the black sticky substance known on the streets as black tar heroin. Although purer heroin is becoming more common, most street heroin is cut with other drugs or with substances such as sugar, starch, powdered milk, or quinine. Street heroin can also be cut with strychnine or other poisons. Because heroin abusers do not know the actual strength of the drug or its true contents, they are at risk of overdose or death. Heroin also poses special problems because of the transmission of HIV and other diseases that can occur from sharing needles or other injection equipment.…

    • 1306 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    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…

    • 4444 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Oxycontin Research Paper

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Legal Heroin when used miss correctly. That’s what OxyContin is. The pill is meant for people with chronic or unbearable pain. Legally it’s sold for six dollars a pill, but one OxyContin pill can fetch up to 80 dollars illegally through the black market. Originally discovered in 1916 in Germany as an opioid (a pill made to work on the nervous system) to work better than Heroin, codeine and morphine. It was first brought to the United States in 1939, but it wasn’t till December 12, 1995 when it could be produced since that’s when the FDA approved it. It started being produced by Purdue Pharma in the United States. OxyContin ranks 19th in the U.S among all U.S Pharmaceuticals in sales. It used among all ages, even kids who buy it off of other kids at schools. When the drug is taken in a pill form, it has a long release of twelve hours. Most addicts who want a strong drug break down into a powdered form for a short strong release. The black market for the OxyContin is taken of since it a very addictive, due to it being…

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    DrugFacts: Understanding Drug Abuse and Addiction. (2012, November 1). Retrieved November 10, 2014, from http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/understanding-drug-abuse-addiction…

    • 142 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Heroin is an extremely addictive opiate; it is produced from morphine. Opium is a substance that is extracted from the seedpod of the opium poppy plant. The color of heroin can vary depending on the purity of it. The purer the heroin, the whiter it will be. The reason the color varies it is due to the impurities in the heroin National Drug Institute (2013). According to U.S.…

    • 1489 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Research Paper On Heroin

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Over many years the abuse of Heroin has been known, but now the epidemic is out of control and many are dying daily. Heroin is a substance that is synthesized from morphine, and extracted from the poppy seed plant. The opium poppy has been refined for more than five thousand years for a variety of medicinal uses. When heroin was first created it was used as a cough syrup and pain killer. At first people believe it would help with morphine and opium addiction but then doctors realized people were becoming addicted to heroin. Heroin was first synthesized in 1874, and then marketed by the Beyer Company in Germany in 1898 until 1910. Beyer exported Heroin to more that 23 countries in 1899. In 1914 the Harrison Act was passed, and it was the aggressively enforced that all Physicians, who were prescribing drugs to addicts would be punished. Between 1915 and 1938 over five thousand physicians were found guilt for violating the Harrison Act. The modern drug war started in the 1960s and continues today with no success in combating the epidemic on drugs.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    References: Ghodse, H. (2012). Drugs of Abuse and Dependence In: Cambridge University Press (ed.), Drugs and Addictive Behavior: A Guide to Treatment. (pp.98-99). New York, New York Cambridge University Press…

    • 1082 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Naloxone Addiction

    • 1020 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Volkow, Nora D. "America’s Addiction to Opioids: Heroin and Prescription Drug Abuse." Www.drugabuse.gov. National Institute On Drug Abuse, 14 May 2014. Web. 21 Mar. 2017.…

    • 1020 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Drug addiction is a severe social problem. However, it is a treatable chronic disease which can be successfully managed by combining behavioural therapy with medications. In all medication treatment, we focus on the possible addiction treatments for those opioid addicts refractory to existing treatments. Opioid dependence is usually displayed as heroin dependence. Methadone has been shown to reduce opioid dependence with a high availability and acceptance. However, about a quarter or slightly less of patients do not improve and cannot give up illegal heroin entirely. As a result, they will be exposed to a situation that present risks to their health and lead to social exclusion. Although available clinical evidence on prescribed diacetylmorphine…

    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Heroin Research Papers

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Heroin, also known at big H, dope, smack, black tar and many other terms is one of the most dangerous drugs in America and is killing thousands of people all around America. It is made from the opium poppy and is farmed in the Middle East and Mexico. It is then refined to many forms of heroin like black tar, white heroin which is the iconic white powder and brown heroin which is usually a murky liquid. I could go on and on about how each type is different but they are all deadly and highly addictive.…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Methadone

    • 1944 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Methadone was first introduced during WWII when it was developed by German Chemists (the brand name Dolophine is a tribute to Adolph Hitler) (167-168). The German Scientists developed methadone as a substitute for morphine. Soon, American companies brought Methadone to the United States for use as a painkiller and, later, to help treat persons going through heroin and other opiate withdrawal (Methadone and You 1: 1). Since the 1960's, methadone has primarily been used for addiction treatment. It is also important to know that methadone is not a single product from a single manufacturer, though the active ingredient is always the same: methadone hydrochloride (Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation 10).…

    • 1944 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    What is Heroin addiction and what causes it? The answer is really obvious. We all know it right? Heroin causes Heroin addiction. Here is how it works. If we use Heroin for 20 days ,by the day 21 our body would physically crave the drug because there are chemical materials in the drug. That is what Heroin addiction means. But it does not end in this.. Almost everything we know about Heroin addiction is wrong.…

    • 75 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays