opioids and American youths.

Opioids and American Youths
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Opioids and American Youths
A recent report by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) reveals that deaths of young Americans due to abuse of opioids have quadrupled since 2000. For this reason, President Donald J Trump has declared the current opioids crisis as a national emergency (Mukherjee, 2017). Opioids are drugs prescribed as painkillers but have been abused for leisure purposes by youths between the age of 15 and 19 years old (Mukherjee, 2017). Examples of opioids include heroin, morphine, hydrocodone, and Buprenorphine. Apart from these deaths that McIntyre (2017) states that had amounted to 28,647 by the year 2014, the cases of overdose have tripled as indicated by some suicide cases in the last five years. This necessitates effective strategies to help the addicted recover and also shield others. In the fight against opioids addiction, efforts from the government, parents, and schools through processes of policy development, good parenting and counseling are critical.
Opioids belong to a group of opiates, a class of drugs that contain chemicals extracted from opium poppy plants. The chemicals have been useful in the manufacture of drugs used in pain management, cough suppression among other prescription uses. Most of the opioids are legal thus readily easy to obtain, prescribed and widely used among the youths. Others such as heroin which sometimes used in controlled clinical settings are illegal and lethal in high dosage.

The key reason Opioids are highly addictive is that they are effective in pain management while at the same time gives a strong euphoria or “high” feeling upon consumption (Crumpton & Wicker, 2017). Such feeling can last between 30 minutes and 6 hours depending on the kind of drug used. Heroin is strongest with a half-life of at least 6 hours (Patterson, 2017). And as drugs of addiction, users have to keep taking them not only to maintain the feeling but also survive.
Opioids short time effects include euphoria, sedation, pain reduction and drowsiness. These effects are deceiving as they make the user continue using them to maintain them. Normally, most youths switch to robbery, violence, and other legal activities for quick money so that they can sustain the addiction (Turk e al., 2012). The bad side of opioids use is that of their long-term effects. They are nausea, paranoia, respiratory depression, and lethargy. As the addiction progresses to weeks and months, the users suffer dependence, constipation, liver and brain cells damage, and vomiting (Patterson, 2017). Socially, one becomes antisocial in many ways, performance at school declines, and both physical and mental health deteriorates. Worse, any intervention without professional assistance may not help a user recover from addiction.
According to Turk et al. (2012), rehabilitation of users, as well as designing of opioids, can help address the current addiction crises in the US. Opioids design and prescription interventions include reducing the dosage, replacing the addictive chemicals and consideration of abuse-deterrent properties (Turk et al. (2012). The other treatment option is detoxification to clean the drug from the body. This method also helps users stay comfortable during withdrawal thereby eliminating the chances of relapse. The process can take at least three months depending on other variables such as length of use (Patterson, 2017). Also, a replacement opioid can be prescribed to help the user recover safely. Finally, sufficient counseling and guidance are necessary to ensure that American youths are well equipped to avoid temptations of misuse. This also enables them to resist other contributing factors such as peer pressure, stress, and depression. Parents also need to show love and care for their children. The reason for this is that good parenting is the key to the healthy relationship between the children and parents, which many studies recognize as prevention against drug abuse, violence, and delinquency.
In brief, Opioids addiction has increased in the last one and half decade. The US government declared opioids addiction as a national emergency requiring attention from parents, school, government, and self-control among the youths. The key reason for opioids abuse is their capability to relief pain and give the euphoric high feeling as side effects. Consequently, many youths fail to avoid the temptations of overuse leading to addiction. Several treatment methods exist including replacement with less harmful opioids and detoxification. Since the recovery can take longer to be successful, rehabilitation is necessary. More importantly, government interventions through drug policies can help reduce the risk of addiction among the users.
References
Crumpton, J., & Wicker, J. (2017). Opioid Addiction: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Public Management (00333611), 99(10), 10-13.
McIntyre, E. (2017). Measuring the Impact: Rising opioid abuse puts pressure on schools. Education Digest, 82(5), 4-11.
Mukherjee, S. (2017). These Opioids Are Killing an Increasing Number of American Teens. Fortune.Com, 1.
Patterson, E. (2017). The Effects of Opiate Use. Retrieved February 04, 2018, from https://drugabuse.com/library/the-effects-of-opiate-use/
Turk, D. C., O’Connor, A. B., Dworkin, R. H., Chaudhry, A., Katz, N. P., Adams, E. H., & … Jacobs, P. (2012). Research design considerations for clinical studies of abuse-deterrent opioid analgesics: IMMPACT recommendations. Pain (03043959), 153(10), 1997-2008. doi:10.1016/j.pain.2012.05.029