Category Archives: opiates

If you’ve never had an experience with anyone with an opiate addiction, then you will not be familiar with the dangers of these drugs and how, if there is an addiction, the person will probably need to visit a drug treatment center to get clean. Opiates are a group of drugs that are highly addictive; some causing feelings of euphoria while others give an overall relaxing affect. What is certain is that opiate addiction will be in the person’s future if they continue to take these substances. Derived from the opium plant, the main opiates are: heroin, codeine, morphine, thebaine and papaverine. Experimenting with any of these drugs can create an opiate addiction and the experimenters will likely find themselves in a drug treatment center to get their life back. A widely used opiate is codeine which is made from morphine. Working the same as morphine, it is found in cough syrups and other medicines and can create an opiate addiction just as morphine or heroine can. Codeine can be lethal when taken in large doses. Morphine, the most prevalent form of opium, has side effects ranging from difficulty breathing, cardiac abnormalities and even a coma. As little as 125 mg. or two grams of opium could be lethal. Unfortunately, morphine is the drug of choice by many doctors to relieve severe pain for patients that are admitted into the hospital or need pain management at home. These patients have no idea that they can be in the throes of forming an opiate addiction. Morphine has become as common as alcohol today. Alcoholic abusers will need an alcohol rehab program and those that have an opiate addiction, even because of medical treatment, might need a drug treatment center. Heroin, the most addictive of all of the opiates, causes a feeling of euphoria that addicts want to repeat over and over again. It is used as a pain killer and under close supervision can be effective in relieving severe pain. But because of its highly addictive nature, patients have been found to form an opiate addiction very quickly. Used as a recreational drug, heroine is deadly and it’s highly unlikely that without going to a drug treatment center, the habit can be kicked. Many lives are lost and families destroyed because of the devastating affects of opiate addiction.