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Opioids are drugs that affect opioid receptors and induce an overwhelming feeling of comfort, pain relief and emotional relief. They are often used in the medical field in order to sedate patients or provide relief from pain during surgery, injuries or recovery. For those recovering from a surgery or injury, they may be prescribed opioid treatment such as Oxycodone or Percocet. This alone had led to the addiction and death of over 2.4 million patients. While doctors and pharmaceutical companies prescribe these drugs with the knowledge that their patients may very well become addicted, there is nothing being done to combat this epidemic. 

Addiction is so hard to get over. It puts a toll on people, a lot can’t take the risk and try to quit because it is so hard. This is a big deal to the user’s lifestyle and mental state. It is very easy for people to get their hands on opioids because they are over the counter drugs. So it is easy to get there fix but they are insanely overpriced. So eventually people who don’t have the best income that are hooked to opioids need their fix but can’t buy their normal prescription. The quickest and easiest solution is to switch to street drugs that can simulate the same effects. "Most people that I know don't use OxyContin to get high anymore," one opioid user said in the study. "They have moved on to heroin [because] it is easier to use, much cheaper and easily available” (Moghe). Sadly, heroin is the closest people can get. Though an opioid, it is more of a recreationally used narcotic that is fatal. Because of this the addicts are changing their hole lifestyle. Now everything is revolving around Heroin and they can’t get their life back together. “When you take opioids repeatedly over time, your body slows its production of endorphins. The same dose of opioids stops triggering such a strong flood of good feelings. This is called tolerance. One reason opioid addiction is so common is that people who develop tolerance may feel driven to increase their doses so they can keep feeling good” (“Am I Vulnerable to Opioid Addiction?”).

For just a pill in the cabinet, it can do a lot. Not only does it numb pain, but it tears apart relationships. Opioids are a prescribed drug although they are narcotics, they are in the same class as deadly drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine. Because of how hard it is to get off opioids and how bad the withdrawals are people aren’t themselves. Opioids attach to some parts of your brain and body to make you feel happy, but when stripped away people have withdrawal because of the opioids addictiveness.