Introduction to the Epidemic

Brief Introduction to the Epidemic:

The opium is a plant species endemic to Asia’s continent. It was globalized through the course of time because of its healing properties. It contains the substances of thebaine, codeine and morphine; which is the best known since it has been the more studied. Morphine’s molecule was isolated in the middle of the 19^th century and afterwards it’s was synthesized a new compound while looking to make morphine a better drug: heroine. Heroine was commercialized as a analgesic and flu remedy at the end of the 19^th century and beginnings of the 20^th century in Europe and United States. It’s during the 20^th century that it’s discovered the disadvantages of heroine, mainly its addiction. Therefore it was banned and removed from the market. That didn't mean that people couldn't find it.

It is during the 60's decades that started in the United States the preview of today’s epidemic with the heroin epidemic. This epidemic was fought by the government with strict laws without measuring the outcome of them. Unconsciously, the main faces of this epidemic were minority ethnicities, which didn't help at the prejudice that was already taken place. The principal epicenters of this epidemic was in cosmopolitan cities such as New York and Washington DC.

It was towards the end of the 20^th century that it was synthesized a new miracle drug: oxycodone. This drug was advertised as the solution of all the pain that aspirin and ibuprofen didn't diminish. In line with the innovation, the media propaganda was aggressive, being the first pf it kind and the starting point of multiples propaganda with the same goal in different illnesses. The pharmaceutical responsible went under scrutiny since it evaded the patient wellness compromise. Their scrutiny came after the first signs of the opioid epidemic which came as the comeback of the heroin epidemic. The opioid epidemic is faced very differently as it was its predecessor. This epidemic has brought with it a new point of view in drugs and mental health. Actually, it is wanted to be treated as a mental illness, instead of punish of the choice taken by the patient to use the opioid drug. A lot of the punishments fell back into the statement that the person had a choice and choose wrongly, so it has to face the responsibilities that society imposes no matter what were the consequences.

The addiction martyrium as a mental illness was always there, only nobody noticed until recently. The purpose of this blog is to make reference to statistics studies made in which, you -its reader- can make your own conclusion. At the end you'll question if a drug addict can decide by itself if it wants to be drug dependent or if he or she had some help into the wrong use of it.