Drug abuse and drug overdose (Opium). Social Sciences Essay

Opioid: Drug Abuse and Drug Overdose
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Introduction to Drug Abuse and Overdose
For most people, it is difficult to understand why a person uncontrollably succumbs to drug abuse and addiction since, in contemporary society, these concepts are linked to immorality or the lack of willpower. In reality, addiction is a chronic disease that is a result of a reduced reward circuit due to the initial then continuous voluntary use of the drug. This leads to relapses which are mainly the cause of drug overdose (NIDA, 2020). This paper analyzes opioid addiction and overdose in the history and humanities lenses to discover the differences in the approaches of various experts, including the laymen.
Analysis
History
In the beginning, medical practitioners trusted the effects of opioids as narcotics and did not promptly study their possible consequences. This is evident before the 1800s when physicians treat pain as a natural phenomenon. Thus, there were no laws to prevent strict medical and recreational use. Opioids became agents to treat simple illnesses like diarrhea and toothache (Jones et al., 2018).
Here, we can see that, like in any other part of history, people will not start to make a move unless an entity starts harming them. However, when its negative impacts began to arise, governments rapidly showed their actions.
In 1914, the US government enacted the Harrison Narcotic Control Act due to the abrupt surfacing of street opiate abuse. Despite this, people, especially cancer and malingering patients, continued to liberally abuse the drug to the 1920s. Hence, they were encouraged to wean off from opioids for weeks until their perception goes back to normal. Pain undertreatment prompted the World Health Organization in 1986 to influence various countries to the adequate use of opioid analgesics in pain management.
History revealed the evolution of the use of opioids where the pattern is liberal-controlled-liberal. Initially, the lack of knowledge showed that people will indulge in things that they have a little knowledge of. However, once there is proof of its negative effects, they will start becoming cautious. Through time, people learn...