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.Opiates: Drug Addiction and Heroin Essay.  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.

Intravenous injection gives the greatest intensity. Intramuscular injections give the slowest onset of approximately five to eight minutes. Other forms of use are snorting and smoking. When heroin is snorted up the nasal passage it is normally felt within ten to fifteen minutes. This method is now being reported as the main method for users being admitted into treatment.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.

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The last form is using heroin is smoking, it is also known as “chasing the dragon. ” When smoking heroin, the onset of euphoria is felt almost instantly, though smoking and snorting does not give you the quickness or intensity as intravenous injection. Opiates: Drug Addiction and Heroin Essay.The Effects of Heroin After using heroin, in one of the many ways, it crosses the blood-brain barrier. Once the heroin reaches the brain, it is then turned into morphine and very quickly binds the opioid receptors.

Once it reaches the brain, there is a surge of pleasurable sensation. This feeling is also known as a “rush. ” Then comes the feeling of warm skin, a dry mouth, the legs and arms feel very heavy. That is then soon followed by nausea, vomiting, and/or itching. The user soon feels the inability to concentrate, or show apathy, and they often feel drowsy.

Heroin causes the pupils to contract and look like pin points. Heroin used in larger doses “brings on the nod,” severe drowsiness, and a sense of being separated from the real world (Guide4Living, page 1). Heroin also takes away moderate to severe pain, and gives the user the desire for food and sex. The effects of heroin only last for a couple of hours, and then withdrawal and a strong craving for more kick in. Addiction to Heroin Addiction to heroin can come faster than the user expects. Opiates: Drug Addiction and Heroin Essay.

Physical dependence comes with using higher doses to get the same effect.The body adapts to the drug being there and pretty much goes into shock when it is taken away. Major withdrawal symptoms occur about 24 – 48 hours after the last use, depending on the person. The withdrawal effects will begin to ease up after about a week, some heavy users say that they still feel withdrawal symptoms months after they stopped using the drug. Heroin withdrawal will not cause death in a healthy person, but in some cases, can push the user to suicide because of the psychological effects. Once a user becomes addicted to heroin, their tolerance for the drug goes through the roof.

They constantly need more and more to get the same effect. This is the main cause of overdose. The user doesn’t know how much is too much, every time they use they are playing with death. Eventually, death will win.

Treatment of Opiate Addiction First let me say that heroin users in America have a better chance for recovery than other countries. “Countries like Russia have made treatment drugs such as methadone and buprenorphine unavailable or illegal. All treatment for drug abuse in the Russian Federation is abstinence oriented,” says Dr.Eugeny Krupitsky, psychiatrist, Leningrad Regional Dispensary of Narcology (The Methadone Fix, page 1). Methadone was first released to the public in 2004 in China.

By the end of 2007, there were 503 clinics in 23 provinces in China that was prescribing methadone. About 60,000 heroin dependent patients were treated in these clinics. Opiates: Drug Addiction and Heroin Essay.In 2008, doctors plan to wean out methadone due to its physical addiction and start using buprenorphine, or suboxone, to treat opioid addiction. When using one of these drugs, there purpose is to block out withdrawal symptoms so the addict can be symptom free without using drugs.

When the drug (methadone or buprenorphine) is done being used the addict will still feel mild withdrawal symptoms, but not as severe. Just like any other addictions, it is 85% mental and 15% physical. Doctors and science are working everyday to come up with new treatment programs. Dr. Ron L.

Hubbard, author of “Clear Body Clear Mind” came up with methods of exercise, nutritional supplements, and periods of time sweating in a dry sauna to help the body get off the opiates. The reason for this is because over the time of heavy drug use, the residues of the drug get stored in the body’s fat cells.This will make it nearly impossible for the user to stay clean; it will cause depression and severe cravings to constantly pop up. Addiction to Prescription Pain Pills Prescription pain pills such as oxy-contin, Percocet, vicodin, percodan, and loratab are being abused daily by life-long drug addicts, and addiction is creeping up on unsuspecting patients who are using them just for pain.

Oxy-contin is one pill that is taking over the pain pill epidemic. It has potency comparable to pure heroin, and the rate of its use has shot sky high since its debut in 1996.The pill is normally crushed to get past the time release coating and then snorted up the nasal passage or injected into a vein. The treatment for pain pills in the same as heroin. Either a methadone or buprenorphine treatment plan is recommended. Opiates: Drug Addiction and Heroin Essay.

The withdrawal has normally the same effects as heroin, just not as intense. All prescription pain pills are made with an opiate base, so making them just as addictive as heroin. Doctors these days are required to go through a drug awareness program so they can be informed on the chance of addiction. Methadone Methadone is a synthetic drug.

It is used to manage withdrawal and cravings for opiate addicted persons. Methadone it’s self is an opioid base so it is, in no terms, a cure for addiction. Its terms of use are to slowly drop the milligram (strength of the pill) on a daily basis, to wean the user off of the drug. Methadone has proven to be more addictive than the strongest heroin. Detoxing from any opiate is a miserable feeling, but the withdrawal from methadone is extremely painful and excruciating. If methadone is abused and not taken under strict medical supervision, it is worse than heroin itself.

As I previously stated, doctors and researchers are constantly looking for new treatment for drug addictions. Methadone worked to get a lot of people clean of opiate addiction. Now doctors have developed suboxone and other treatment plans. No matter how hard everybody tries, there will be somebody out there abusing the drugs that are meant for treatment. Long Term Effects of Heroin on the Body Heroin sure takes a toll on the body, whether you use it for six months or sixty years. When a person uses heroin for a long time there are a lot of health complications they are getting themselves into.

First of all, they will fall into a deep depression even when they are using the drug they just cannot be happy. Some more long term effects are scarred or collapsed veins, bacterial infections of the blood vessels and heart valves. These complications can cause death in the long run. Some more are abscesses at the injection sites, in the brain, and else where. Another big problem with intravenous heroin use is the “transfer of HIV, hepatitis A, B, C, and sexually transmitted diseases including syphilis” says the Heroin Awareness foundation.

These are problems that cannot be cured by just going to a clinic and getting treatment. Opiates: Drug Addiction and Heroin Essay.They are life altering diseases. When certain brain cells are damaged during long term heroin use, they are hard to rehabilitate. Studies have shown us that symptoms like motor impairment, depression, and slowed thinking can persist to show up a long time after the drug has been absent from the body. Almost all opiate users feel fine and don’t feel the effects of what they are doing to their bodies until they are in withdrawal. Dr.

W. G. Karr, professor of Biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania says: The addict under his normal tolerance of morphine is medically a well man.Careful studies of all known medical tests for pathologic variation indicate, with a few minor exceptions, that the addict is a well individual when receiving satisfying quantities of the drug.

He responds to work in a normal manner. His weight is normal. His cardiac and vascular system is normal. He is as agreeable a patient, or more so, than other hospital cases. When he is abruptly withdrawn from the drug he is most decidedly a sick individual. (The Effects of Opiates, Chapter 2 page 9) Mental Addiction The mental part of an addiction is 85% of the battle.

Part of the euphoria that is felt when heroin is used is mental.An experiment made by Thomas Beecher took non-addicted subjects and gave half of them heroin and the other half placebos. When he asked them what they felt he had responses across the board. There were people who got placebos who were sweating, throwing up, and had severe itching only because that is what they were expecting, also some of the subjects who were given real heroin saying that they did not feel a thing at all. Complications of Overdose Sooner or later every opiate user will experience some sort of overdose whether it be on pain pills, heroin or another opiate based substance.Some drug users’ use over dose as a form of suicide, because of the severe depression that is a side effect of the opiate’s use.

Some of the main symptoms of overdose are increased pulse rate, slowed breathing, coma, pinpoint pupils, and even death. When using opiate based substances your immune system is not fully functional and your body is more vulnerable to infections and disease. Harlem Hospital in New York City found that patients coming in with an overdose also had higher rates of pneumonia and hepatitis. Overdose on opiates very commonly throw’s the body into compulsive seizures and increased intracranial pressure” (New York Academy of Medicine, page 6). One the body goes into seizures; it is very hard to get the body to stop. The body will continue to seize as long as the drug is being used.

Overdose on the body is horrible. The human body is not made for that type of treatment. Every time an opiate user overdoses, they lower their chances of survival on their next overdose. When the user builds a tolerance to the drug, they need more to reach the same feeling of euphoria.

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When this happens, the chances of overdose are extremely raised. In conclusion opiates have been around for a very long time. They have became medicines that are still used very much today. Opiates: Drug Addiction and Heroin Essay.They have also taken over the drug world in forms of heroin, morphine, and any other way it’s been thought up to abuse them. There are multiple ways to get treatment when one of these things grab a hold of you and won’t let go.

Opiates have hurt some people and they have helped a lot of people. The world should learn to respect the danger they propose and only use them under medical supervision.Works Cited 1. Anonymous.

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