Kiavett Gavino

Professor Roberts

Health 1050

April 3 , 2019

Research Paper

“Every day, more than 130 people in the United States die after overdosing on

opioids.” (6) The opioid crisis has been a considerable problem in the United States for

a really long time, many people have access to opioids or opiates in the U.S, whether

they can get through a pharmaceutical/doctor or off the streets. Even though people get

them by a doctor or on the streets there are regulations and laws. Opiates, opiate

derivatives and synthetic opiates are highly addicted to the human body if misuse. We

will see how people are getting addicted and how the U.S and other countries are

attacking this crisis, also we’ll look how opioids affect the users body and their lifestyle

once they get addicted.

The history on the opiate crisis in United States started around 1991, Americans

that had chronic pain saw a way for their pain to be resolve by medications that are

called opiaties. Pharmaceutical companies and medical societies said that they was a

low risk for people that used prescribed opiates wouldn't get additive and they started to

advertise opiates, they also recommended for non-cancer patients with pain to start

using opiates, (3,6) little did they know that opiates could be highly addictive, the U.S
started to see more death based on overdose on opiods. When the calendar hit 1999

about 89% of non-cancer patients were using opioids for pain. (3)

The National Capital Poison Control said “Opioid epidemic started around 2010

with a rapid increase in deaths from heroin abuse. As early efforts to decrease opioid

prescribing began to take effect, making prescription opioids harder to obtain,” (3)

around this time we as a country also saw that other people were going for the street

drugs mostly heroin. People started to get immuned by a prescribed medication called

morphine because the users began taking large quantities and they automatically liked

the feeling that they were experiencing, most of the users went down to heroin because

it’s five times stronger than morphine.(5,6) Around this time heroin was a illegal opium,

it was cheaper to obtain than morphine and it was widely available. In 2003-2005 80%

of heroin users admitted that they were misusing prescription opioids before they went

to heroin. (3) During 2013 there was a rise of users that were using fentanyl a synthetic

drug. On 2016 about 200,000 people overdoses and passed away related to fentanyl.

(3) Many people started out with morphine than went down to heroin and then stayed on

fentaly. It’s crazy to think that through time it has gone substandard and more and more

people are getting additive each year with some of the most dangerous opiates.

The opium crisis started out small without the U.S knowing that this would be one

of the biggest crisis that as a country has go through, and are still trying to find a

solutions to beat with crisis. There was a story about a lady who was named Kaley she

was 16 when she first started to use heroin, she was a great student and don't miss any

classes she also obtain a part time job, when she turned 18 she started to go IV and

she declined very rapidly, her mother found out that she was highly additive to heroin,
so she entered an intensive 9 month inpatient treatment program, she said that the

treatment program was an easy access. While she was in the program they also helped

her family as well because they thought that she was a criminal and wanted to cut her

out of the family, but the treatment center help her family to understand more about

fighting an addiction. Eventually she overcome the addiction and has been sober since.

(4)

The U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a nation leading

medical research agency on the opium crisis there main goal is to help and discover

new and better ways to prevent opiates misuse and manage pain for people that need

it. The HHS main tackles points of this crisi is to improvement and have easy access to

treatment and recovery areas, promoting use of overdose-reversing drugs,

strengthening our understanding of the epidemic through better public health

surveillance, providing support for cutting-edge research on pain and addiction and

finally advancing better practices for pain management.(6) The National Institute on

Drug Abuse said that they talked to pharmaceuticals companies and academic research

centers and they said that they want to have a safe, effective, non-addictive strategies

to manage chronic pain, new innovative medications and technologies to treat opioid

use disorders and improved overdose prevention and reversal inventions to save lives

and support recovery.

Opiates have a strong and negative effects in your body and brain if misused,

opiates are classified as a depressant drugs, meaning that it slows the body. The main

concerns about using opiates is it slows down your respiratory rate, which you can

overdose because the brain shuts down your breathing. It also slows down your
digestive system and it could lead to constipation. With the immune system it can can

increase the susceptibility to infection. If a person was using Vicodin and Percocet both

know as painkillers they can develop acetaminophen know as liver damage. (7,8)

When people injected opiates they can cause their veins to collapse, it can also

increase the risk of getting hepatitis and HIV due to unsterile needles and

sharing/overusing needles. In 2015, Indiana governor reversed one of his drug policies

to an emergency needle exchange program because so many people were getting HIV

due to the opiates abusers. (8) opiates induced hyperalgesia and can cause

excruciating pain, it also can slow down your body's physical movement. When the

abuser stops taking opiates they go through withdraws; their symptoms that they

encounter are similar like the flu they have severe vomiting, diarrhea and they are in a

lot of pain, this symptoms could last for 3-4 weeks.

When a user takes opiates it attaches to the body's receptors and the body gets

a rush called dopamine which is a important neurotransmitter. Dopamine signals

neurons which creates a high level of excitement of pleasure this is know as a “high”.(2)

When an abuser using opiates for so long it trains their brain to be addicatice to the

drugs, because through time opiates make the receptors in the brain less sensitive.

Research and studies have proven that when abusers have been on opiates for so long

that their brain can develop poor learning patterns, cause anxiety, constipation, mood

wings and issues with their sleep. (2)

In other countries like Vancouver Canada they been seeing more canadians

overdosing on fentanyl than heroin which is 10 times stronger than heroin. In Vancouver

between alleyways people have stations called Overdose Prevention Society, abusers
can come through and test out there drugs to see what chemicals it contains because

most drug dealers would mix any chemical with the drug.(1) People that run the stations

also provided supervision just to make sure that the abuser doesn't overdose, and if

they do they will have their hands ready to use narcan which is a non-addictive life

saving drug that blocks the opiate receptors in the brain. (9) The Vancouver police have

a strong drug policy, they mostly arrest drug dealers rather the the users. Doctors in

canada are treat heroin user with methadone and buprenorphine and stander

medications; it helps minimize or even stop the users craving for heroin. One out of 10

people don’t respond well to this treatment. (1)

As time goes by more and more adults and young people are misusing opiates

whether they get it prescribed or off the streets, and the U.S are trying to educate and

open up more treatment centers for users. It’s interesting the differences between other

countries on how they deal with their opiate crisis. Overall opiates, opiate derivatives

and synthetic opiates are very dangerous when used incorrectly and it could damage

your body and brain, hopefully we as a country can minimize the use of opiates.

Resources

1) Gordon, E. (2019, September 27). In Canada, some doctors are prescribing heroin to treat

heroin addiction. Retrieved April 4, 2019, from https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-09-

27/canada-some-doctors-are-prescribing-heroin-treat-heroin-addiction

2) Hall, M. (Ed.). (2019, March 4). How Do Opiates Affect the Brain? | Are They

Permanent? Retrieved April 4, 2019, from https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/opiate-

addiction/how-opiates-affect-brain/
3) History of the Opioid Epidemic. (2018, February 12). Retrieved April 3, 2019, from

https://www.poison.org/articles/opioid-epidemic-history-and-prescribing-patterns-182

4) K. (n.d.). Stories of Opioid Addiction | Lift the Label. Retrieved April 3, 2019, from

http://liftthelabel.org/stories/#kaley

5) Keller, A. (2018, August 5). Strongest Pain Pills. Retrieved April 3, 2019, from

https://www.drugrehab.com/addiction/opioid-strength/

6) National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2019, January 22). Opioid Overdose Crisis. Retrieved

April 3, 2019, from https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-

crisis#three

7) Opiate Effects | Short Term, Long Term & Side Effects. (2018, November 25). Retrieved

from https://drugabuse.com/opiates/effects-of-use/

8) The Effects of Opiates on the Body. (2018, June 16). Retrieved April 4, 2019, from

https://drugabuse.com/featured/the-effects-of-opiates-on-the-body/

9) Utah Naloxone - Home. (n.d.). Retrieved April 4, 2019, from

http://www.utahnaloxone.org/