More opiate abuse in Canada starts from prescription use than recreational use. With the rising number of prescriptions for opiates every year more and more people are being given the drugs legally for relief of their pain. People who would not have otherwise tried these drugs are being introduced to them, resulting in abuse of those drugs. The administration of the drug will largely depend on what drug is being used and the tolerance level of the user. The prescription opiate abuse in Canada is relatively high and is quickly becoming a major health concern because these drugs are being prescribed more frequently than ever before.
Canadians are being given more pain medication from their doctor every year and this has resulted in more addictions being caused by prescription use. More opiate prescription drugs are being abused than heroin in Canada the difference being reported prescription opiate addictions are approximately three times greater than heroin (As seen in Table 13.2 Distribution of Heroin-only, Prescription Opioid-only, and Combined Users by Site in Canada in Drugs Behavior, and Society. Pg 294), this shows that there is a higher chance that those users became addicted to those medication while being prescribed them. In The Globe and Mail article, “Canada’s Pain-Killer Problem”, the two stories are of people with opiate addictions that started from prescribed medication. Some concerning points in this article are the references to a study from The Canadian Journal of Public Health which states that opiate abuse that started off as a prescription has risen 24.3 per cent from 2002 to 2005 and spending on opiate prescriptions doubled during the 1998-2007 timeframe. These findings show that there is potentially a positive correlation between the number of opiate prescription and the number addictions starting from prescriptions.
The people that become addicted to prescription drugs do not follow the typical drug user stereotypes because they would have been unlikely to have started the drug recreationally. Both of the recovered addicts in The Globe and Mail article describe that they never would have started using the drugs had they not been prescribed them for pain. This becomes a problem since many of these patients can photocopy their prescriptions and bring the photocopies to multiple drug stores to get more of the drug, as the one addict described in “Canada’s Pain-Killer Problem”. Some have started to petition the Canadian government to enforce more safe guarding procedures so that the problem will likely reduce in size according to Webster’s Canadian Medical Association Journal article. Doctors often will prescribe more than what is needed which becomes a problem because the prescription is able to last longer; this causes a higher possibility to become addicted. The typical addicts of opiates are suburban women in their fifties and sixties which is why they tend to go unnoticed since they do not follow the addict stereotypes and have never had drug problems before according to Medically Induced Opioid Addiction Reaching Alarming Levels. When the addict cannot get drugs through legal means they will often be able to find someone to provide the drugs to them but it can cost hundreds of dollars a day as mentioned in The Globe and Mail article. This in turn can make it even harder to find these addicts so then can get proper treatment.The main forms of administration are injection both intravenously and subcutaneously, inhalation, snorting and ingestion according to Drugs Behavior, and Society. The method often will depend on the drug being used and the quality. Heroin will be inhaled, injected, and snorted based on the purity and form. Other opiates such as Oxycodone can be ingested when in pill form such as OxyContin and Percocet. Morphine is often injected intravenously. With the variety of administration styles it becomes harder to pinpoint someone as an addict. This was the case with Ms. Nagle in “Canada’s Pain-Killer Problem”, as her husband was unaware for years that she had a problem. The forms of administration used depend on the drug being used and this is often why addicts of opiates go unnoticed.
In Conclusion, the prescription opiate use in Canada is extremely high in comparison to other opiates, approximately three times as much. There are a variety of ways to administer opiates making it harder to recognize, especially if the drug is being ingested. Since prescription drugs are legal substances it is easier for addicts to find so that they can use but may be extremely costly. There is potentially a strong, positive correlation between higher prescription rates for opiates and prescription opiate abuse rates.
References:
Hart, Carl L. Drugs, Behaviour, and Society. [Toronto]: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2012. 286-310. Print.
PAPERNY, Anna MEHLER. “The Globe and Mail.” Editorial. Globe and Mail 13 Nov. 2009: 1. The Globe and Mail. 23 Aug. 2012. Web. 16 July 2013. <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/conditions/canadas-painkiller-problem/article4098714/?page=all>.
Webster, Paul Christopher. “Canadian Medical Association Journal.” Medically Induced Opioid Addiction Reaching Alarming Levels. N.p., 23 Jan. 2012. Web. 10 July 2013. <http://www.cmaj.ca/content/184/3/285.full>.
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