Essay On Missouri Drug Abuse

Although this epidemic has been surging for the past 30 years, there has yet to have been an effective solution to drastically reduce the number of deaths and recurring addictions. The U.S. government has implemented different solutions, but the use of opioids still prevails. Even though drug use is criminalized in most places in the U.S., people are still continuing to use and abuse drugs. While many different approaches are hypothesized to stop the use of drugs, new forms of opioid use and problems seem to arise. There exists stigmas, stereotypes, and false information that have spread about drug use and addiction which hinders people's abilities to be able to understand and offer help to addicts and drug users.

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.

Availability of opioids puts more and more people at risk for addiction. A simple prescription from the doctor for a migraine or back pain can turn into an addiction. Doctors are faced daily with patients who complain of pain, acute and chronic. It has become a simple solution for them to write out a prescription for pain medication to help their patient. In turn, not helping them at all.

According to the article “Opioid Abuse and Addiction,” the number of individuals abusing prescription narcotics increased from “7.8 million in 1992 to 15.1 million in 2003” (Gupta and Christo 132). Abuse is defined as the use of a prescription narcotic without having a legal prescription for that narcotic or failure to take the narcotic as directed by the prescribing physician. Most prescription narcotic addicts do not begin their addiction by buying illegal pharmaceuticals

“ Because they produce euphoria in addition to pain relief, they can be misused. Regular use- even as prescribed by a doctor can lead to dependence ,and when misused, opioid pain relievers can lead to overdose incidents and deaths” (Drugabuse.gov/opioids) Prescribing opioids have more dangers to the human than they do

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.

Opioid pain medications are some of the most commonly abused prescription drugs. Between 1991 and 2010, opioid prescriptions rose from about 75.5 million to 209.5 million. Americans account for 4.6% of the world’s population but consume approximately 80% of the world’s opioid supply. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 12 million people used prescription painkillers for nonmedical reasons in 2010. Opioid abuse has led to increases in emergency-department visits, hospitalizations, and admissions to substance-abuse treatment centers at a time when our healthcare system is already strained.

“Every year 214 million prescription for opiods pain killers are given to patients” One of the most prescribed drug that causes overdoses are opioids. a high percentage of the population have issues with the addiction, and not everyone has the possibility to get help, some of them are alone who don't have anyone to help them or they don't have enough income for drug rehabilitation. at the same time rehab is charging thousands of dollars for help. While most people are struggling with money and it's easier and cheaper for them to buy or get drugs prescribed and make the drug help them forget their issues.

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,

Opioids Today Undoubtedly, the addictive nature of opioids has generated immense controversy in both the medical community and population of the United States. During the last decade, the increase of people addicted to opioids has grown steadily, among them; you can find ordinary people but celebrities, athletes and soldiers thus charging many lives in their path. Despite this, it was not until after several months of political pressure that the current president of the United States, Donald Trump, declared in the middle of 2017 those opioids are responsible of a health crisis in America. The history of the nation shows that with the passage of time, similar crises have appeared that are now experienced, but that despite this, they have not

Despite the government's “best” efforts, drug use and addiction rates continue to rise, and the criminalization of drug

According to Michael Klein, “The most prescription drugs that are commonly misused are opioids, tranquillizers, sedatives, and hypnotics.” Unintentional overdose deaths involving opioid pain relievers have quadrupled since 1999 and have outnumbered those involving heroin and cocaine since 2002. (Klein). The reason some people abuse opioids is just to “get high”.

These numbers are horrifying. Many teens may not understand how serious abusing these medications may actually be to their health. Many teenagers think because doctors prescribe them legally, there is not a huge issue with taking them. They say they are safer than the illegal drugs (Phillips, 2013). Mendelson, Flower, Pletcher and Galloway (2008) go on to say that “every year since 1999, more than 2 million adults started abusing opioids in the U.S.”

These pills, such as xanax and oxycodone allow people for short periods of time to withdraw from the harsh reality faced today. “Between 1997 and 2002, sales of oxycodone and methadone nearly quadrupled” (Okie). Around 15 years later and the prescription pill problem is continuing to skyrocket. Since prescription pills are dispersed out to anyone by doctors, many people do not realize that it is as much of an illicit drug as cocaine and heroin is. “Misinformation about the addictive properties of prescription opioids and the perception that prescription drugs are less harmful than illicit drugs are other possible contributors to the problem” (NIDA).

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