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Why Take Drugs? There are many reasons why someone might take drugs. Sometimes drugs are prescribed by a doctor or medical professional in order to relieve pain or other symptoms a person might suffer from. In this case, drug abuse and addiction come from overusing the prescribed medication. For teens and young adults taking drugs often stems from curiosity and peer pressure . Teens tend to participate in more risky behavior than adults and are more susceptible to peer

DANGEROUS DRUGS

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, a drug that is manufactured in a laboratory, rather than being produced from the juice of the opium poppy. It is prescribed legally to manage acute pain and long-term pain such as that associated with fatal cancers. However, the drug is extremely potent—50 times stronger than heroin, and 100 times stronger than morphine. Because of this, it has become a popular illegal drug. It is often mixed with heroin, cocaine, or both in order to increase the drug’s effect. As synthetic opioids like fentanyl have become increasingly popular, they have also proven to be increasingly lethal. A buyer of illegal heroin has no way of knowing whether the drug has been laced with fentanyl. This makes it much easier to take too much of the drug, resulting in an overdose. The number of deaths due to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids increased from about 3,000 in 2010 to over 19,400 in 2016. These deaths occurred across all age groups, races, education levels, genders, and regions.

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Understanding Drug Use and Addiction