Opioid Addiction: A National Crisis! Does the New Law Go Far Enough?

A national crisis has come under the watch of the US Government. A new bill has been passed into law. Will these measures go far enough to curb the crisis? The number of deaths caused by the increase in abuse of opioids in the United States has been so alarming that measures are being taken to regulate the prescription of opioids and their follow-up.

When we go to the hospital or to the doctor because we feel bad and we have pain, we do not think about anything else but eliminating the pain. The doctor helps us to get rid of the pain, and you don’t want to know anything else until the pain is gone.

Totally reasonable, nobody wants to feel pain. But sometimes it can have a high price: you can get hooked on a drug that later can bring you more problems than the ones that drove you to the doctor in the first place. From a stimulating first drug trip, you need more and more of the drug to achieve the same effect until it is lethal.

It is faster and easier to abuse these prescription drugs (opioid painkillers), than street drugs, since they are available to children and adolescents in their own homes. They have their first trip, they self-medicate and get hooked on this drug. Prescription drugs are only for people who were prescribed them and then under medical supervision.

The opioids such as OxyContin, and opium derivatives such as Morphine, are soothing; these drugs contain Opium or synthetic substances that are used to relieve pain. They are drugs that act on the nervous system to relieve pain. But the continuous use of these and their abuse creates physical dependence and when you stop using them you can have the withdrawal syndrome like any other drug. You see opiates in tablets, capsules or in liquid.

Short-term effects can be; drowsiness, slow breathing, constipation, loss of consciousness, nausea and coma. Long-term effects: the body adapts, needing more and more so that when you stop taking it you experience bone and muscle pain, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting and intense cold creating an intense craving.

 “The medical aspect is an understandable wish to handle pain. Doctors should press for better drugs to do this that do not have such lamentable side effects. Drugs companies would be advised to do better research.” L. Ron Hubbard.

You go in search of help and you get left with an addiction that can take you to the death if you abuse prescription drugs.

Discover the facts and go to www.drugfreeworld.org