9781422282519

14 OPIOIDS: HEROIN, OXYCONTIN, AND PAINKILLERS

drug can vastly improve people’s lives if used correctly. The problem comes when people take the drugs not as prescribed. In 2013 nearly 4.5 million Americans said they had used prescription painkillers within the last month, even though they had no medical reason to take the drugs.

HOW DO OPIOIDS AND OPIATES WORK?

People have been using and becoming addicted to opiates for centuries. Yet it wasn’t until 1972 that researchers at Johns Hopkins University figured out how opiates worked and why the drugs are so addictive. At that time, scientists discovered that human brain cells had a special receptor site that grabbed on to opioid drugs. They also discovered that morphine, the active ingredient in many synthetically derived opioids, had a chemical makeup similar to endorphins , natural

Opioids flood the brain with chemicals that are similar to—but much stronger than—the chemicals that are naturally released during physical activity.