OPANA
When you think of someone misusing an opioid prescription, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? OxyContin? Percocet? Maybe Vicodin? How about Opana? Opana is a prescription opioid pain reliever that contains the active ingredient oxymorphone. Oxymorphone is a semi-synthetic opioid agonist. A semi-synthetic opioid is not a naturally occurring substance, and it’s not an opiate […]
CAN ANTI-DIARRHEA MEDICINE MAKE YOU FEEL HIGH?
People will try just about anything if they think it will make them high, (smoking banana peels, anyone?) no matter how crazy it sounds. When you consider the many substances that might get you high, anti-diarrhea medicine probably doesn’t even make the list. Believe it or not, it’s abused frequently enough that the United States […]
OPIOIDS AND THE PAIN SCALE
Have you ever gone to the emergency room or your doctor and been asking to rate your pain? Sometimes they’ll say, “on a scale of one to ten, with one being no pain and ten being the worst you’ve ever felt.” This is called the Numeric Pain Rating Scale, or NPRS. It’s quick and easy, […]
ARE SUPERVISED INJECTION SITES EFFECTIVE?
The number of drug-related deaths in the United States is on the rise, with 2017 being the worst year yet. People who inject drugs are at particular risk, because not only is there the potential for overdose, but they are more likely to end up with HIV and other diseases that can be transmitted by […]
THE TRUTH ABOUT HEROIN
If you’ve never used heroin and aren’t close with someone who does, you probably have some preconceived ideas about the sort of person who would become addicted to such a dangerous drug. Are you picturing a grungy homeless man in a sketchy alley? A bunch of runaway youths squatting in an abandoned building? Or maybe […]
MONITORED PUBLIC INJECTION SITES
On a busy street in Brooklyn, New York, there’s a shop where people line up to use the bathroom. It’s not because it’s in a particularly convenient location or because the store itself is so popular – instead, they’re waiting for a chance to inject drugs while monitored by intercom. San Francisco, Seattle, and Philadelphia […]
HIV AND RECREATIONAL DRUGS
For many younger people, HIV and AIDS are as much a thing of the past as acid-wash jeans and Walkman’s. You don’t hear much about it these days on television or in the news, and there’s no longer widespread fear about catching it through casual interaction. Unfortunately, it’s still a serious problem worldwide, and one […]
MEDICAL HEROIN THERAPY
It’s not just the United States that is suffering from a drug epidemic; countries all over the world have rising overdose rates. According to the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Norway has one of the highest rates of death from drug-related overdoses in all of Europe. With a population of just over […]
THE DANGERS OF DRUG INJECTION
According to the World Health Organization, about 13 million people inject drugs. These people are subject to danger not only from the drugs themselves but from the act of using a needle. Injecting drug use accounts for approximately 10 percent of HIV infections globally and 30 percent of those outside of Africa. The occurrence of […]
SPEEDBALLS
When you hear the word speedball, your first thought might be of a particularly fast baseball pitch. Unfortunately, in the context of addiction, it’s something much more sinister. A speedball is a mix of cocaine and heroin or morphine that can be taken either intravenously or by snorting into the nose, which is called nasal […]