A growing number of kids and adults are dying from opioid poisonings around the country. The age group with the highest death rate of opioids are teenagers(14-19). From 1999-2016, nearly 9,000 pediatric deaths were assigned to opioids. During that 18-year span, the mortality rate for youth due to opioid poisonings nearly tripled. Research released in early 2018 in the journal "Pediatrics" showed that the number of children admitted to hospitals for opioid overdoses nearly doubled from 2004 to 2015. They were between ages 1-17, 15-19 having the highest death rate of any age range. Out of the 15-19 year old deaths, 3,050 of them contain multiple substances, such as cocaine, benzodiazepines, alcohol, and antidepressants(sertraline, escitalopram, fluvoxamine, etc.). Ever since this problem became an epidemic, there have been more studies on what really are opioids and the impact it has brought to the U.S.
You might know what I was talking about in my introduction if you've recently seen opioids popping up on the news. If you don't, this will give you an idea behind this whole craze about this drug. An opioid is a class of drugs naturally found in opium poppy plant. They are often used as medicines, specifically as pain killers. Opioid drugs bind to opioid receptors on cells in the brain and throughout the body. Some of those cells control a person’s digestion, pain, and other functions; your body already contains opioid chemicals, such as endorphins, which relieve pain and make you feel good during exercise. When opioid drugs attach to these organs, they dull a person’s perception of pain even more. That’s why they're useful for people recovering from risky injuries or surgery. Yes, they are used for benefits for medicine, but having too much of anything is bad for you. Opioids affect the brain and its system, which can make people feel euphoric, aka feeling high. Some people take opioid medications for no purpose, but just to feel high, which is putting yourself at risk for addiction and other health problems.
Herion is a type of opioid, but there are differences in terms of the drug's effect to the body's system. For example, you can't get a prescription for heroin because its injected. Many prescription opioids are designed to affect you more slowly, producing less effects than heroin over a longer period of time. Sometimes people who want to get high on the drug crush opioid pills to snort or inject the powder, so they can get a more instant, stronger effect. This is very dangerous, because of the risk for addiction and overdose. Unfortunately, some people who misuse prescription pain relievers go on to using heroin because it’s cheaper and they can get it on the street instead of from someone’s prescription.