Cracking Down on Opiates

Pain Pill Prescriptions Leads To A More Deadly Drug Trend: Pressed Pills

Over 30 million people worldwide use opiates – for legitimate pain or for recreational purposes.

Unfortunately, many uses them to feed their addiction, and suffering from detoxification withdrawal symptoms when attempting to quit it.

Irrespective of whether opiates, such as prescription pain killers or heroin or fentanyl, are obtained legally or in the illicit market, there is a problem.

The problem also mutates. When authorities make it more difficult to obtain prescription painkillers from legal sources, then people turn to the illicit market for diverted opioid pain pills or heroin. Just because they ran out of prescription opioid pain pills it doesn’t mean that the addiction has.

Many states are limiting, in shape or form, the prescriptions for opioid painkillers in the hope that it will prevent people from getting addicted to them. The secondary gain would be that the number of opioid pain pills making their way into the hands of drug dealers would be curtailed.

According to Dr. Cidambi, drug cartels or even some home-based ‘cooks’ are finding ways to fill the demand and cashing in on the shortage. Supply will come in to fill the demand gap. If you have ever watched the television show, ‘Breaking Bad’, you know it’s a short leap into making and dealing in drugs.

Some home based-drug operations are importing pill making equipment and raw fentanyl, a synthetic opiate which is 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin, from the dark web and making fentanyl-laced pills at home. They mimic the effects of popular prescription opiate painkillers such as Codeine, Oxycodone and Percocet. What’s more, they are cheaper on the street than the real thing and exponentially more potent, so it provides a higher high.

Not only do these pills contain fentanyl, they may also be laced with other substances, such as benzodiazepines, making it a cocktail of drugs that have the ability to spike the high obtained from opiates.

Individuals suffering from addiction gravitate toward these pills as they are irresistibly cheap. However, they are putting themselves in grave danger, as there is no way of knowing what is actually in them. Drug dealers want to deliver a higher high than their competitors and concoct a variety of formulations without a basic knowledge of chemistry or pharmacology.

Consequently, individuals with addiction issues are putting their lives at risk by ingesting these pills. It would not be unfair to say that unintentional overdoses are mainly caused by such pills.

While the antidote to opiate overdose, Narcan, could help to revive a person who has overdosed on opiates, it may not be as effective on a person who has overdosed on multiple substances of abuse. The danger is not only from multiple substances, it could be from fentanyl alone! It is so potent and the overdose happens so quickly that first responders may not get an opportunity to get to the person on time to administer Narcan and revive them

If you think you have an addiction problem, please feel free to reach out to us. We have an outstanding outpatient treatment program which has delivered excellent results. Please call us or contact us here through our website.

 

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Is Addiction in my Genes?

Are you living with a parent or family member who suffers from addiction?

Are you concerned that you may be predisposed to addictions? Addiction has a strong genetic component and your concerns are well founded.

Two factors strongly contribute to the initiation of use of addictive substances; environment and genetics.

The risk of addiction tends to be proportional to the degree of genetic relationship to an addicted individual.

What it means is that the more closely you are related to an individual with addiction issues, the more likely you are genetically predisposed to get addicted.

If you are looking for help or have any questions, you can contact us here

In early adolescence, the initiation and use of nicotine, alcohol, and cannabis are more strongly determined by familial and social factors (i.e. role models and peer influence), but they decrease in importance as a person progresses to young and middle adulthood. At this point, genetics become the dominant determinant of getting or staying addicted to substances.

 

The precaution a person should take if they have a close relative with addiction issues is to stay away from addictive substances and practice a healthy lifestyle.

Is there a difference in the heritability of different substances? Research has shown that the ability to inherit an addiction to hallucinogens is moderate, while the ability to inherit an addiction to cocaine is high! However, it appears that this variation was attributable to similar lifestyles and environmental factors, not purely to genetics. Whew!!!

Children whose parents are addicted to substances are eight times more likely to become addicts themselves. While all of us have the potential to become addicted to something, be it drugs, food, sex, not everyone becomes addicted.

Apart from genetics, another important contributor to addiction is trauma. Individuals who have suffered through physical, emotional or sexual abuse use substances to mask pain and find pleasure. Indeed 70% of women suffering from addiction have been sexually assaulted earlier in their lives.

Another contributor to addiction is mental health issues. It is well known that antidepressants do not work for 30% of people suffering from depression and medication to address post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) is not very effective. Or, perhaps, the individual never received a proper diagnosis.

These individuals tend to self-medicate through the abuse of alcohol or drugs or the misuse of prescription medications. They eventually end up getting addicted to these medications.

Opioid pain killers and benzodiazepines, used to address anxiety, are two classes of drugs that are commonly misused. Students commonly misuse stimulants, a medication used to address ADHD, in the mistaken belief that it helps their cognition and, therefore, will help them with their grades.

The abuse of substances repeatedly leads to tolerance, which, in turn, leads to increasing the use of addictive substances in order to obtain the same high.

If you feel like you are becoming dependent on any substances, it may be time to get a professional evaluation, especially if someone closely related to you has or is suffering from an addiction to substances.

If you or a loved one is suffering from addiction and need immediate help, please contact us without delay.

 

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