Over the past two decades, opioids have killed more than 700,000 people in the United States. These days, opioids are a major headache for Americans because they kill 130 Americans a day. Abusing opioids is a serious problem not only in the U.S. but also globally.
  An opioid is a drug synthesized from opium and an analgesic drug that relieves pain. Typical forms are fentanyl and morphine, which can become addictive if they are used continuously. Currently, opioids are used primarily to treat extreme pain. However, the overuse of opioids as painkillers in the U.S. has also caused countless pregnant women to become addicted to drugs. Their fetuses are also exposed to the risk of becoming drug addicts upon birth. Recently, images of fetuses showing signs of opioid withdrawal as soon as they were born have been uploaded on YouTube, and it has made millions of people feel pity. One drug expert said the reason for the babies’ shuddering is because the drugs that were being supplied via the umbilical cord were cut off, leading to extreme withdrawal.
  Wally, who had taken opioids in the U.S., said, “Opioid use spread in the states when doctors started prescribing them when a person got sick. The more patients who took the drugs, the more they would get addicted to them. Also, it’s still pretty easy to get opioid prescriptions from doctors. Purdue Pharma, a major pain medicine company, kept manufacturing the drugs even though they knew of the harmful effects they could cause. Opioids can cause many other bad effects. They can make users numb, and they can cause dizziness, organ failure or speech impediments. They are very dangerous. The opioids are also a danger to the economy. The US government spent billions to help battle addiction. However, it didn’t work very well. People couldn’t work properly, and many of these addicted people have caused local economies to collapse.”
  What are the side effects of opioids, which can lead to addiction and even death? To find out, the CBT interviewed a researcher at a pharmaceutical company in Daejeon. The researcher said, “The side effects of opioids are mostly caused by misusing the drug. There are three possible side effects of the opioid. First, there’s a breathing problem. Excessive doses of opioid drugs cause paralysis to the parts of the brain that control breathing. This is dangerous because it can lead to death by asphyxiation. Second, it can cause drug dependency. In addition, there are other side effects such as constipation, vomiting, tremors, and fever, and it is not easy to quit the drugs due to their addictiveness. In extreme situations, people use artificial drugs that are 50 times stronger than fentanyl, which can be deadly. Third, children exposed to opioids at pre-school ages have more than doubled the risk of behavioral or emotional disorders. Moreover, more than 80 percent of pre-adolescent kids can have difficulty reaching full physical development and are twice as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD.”
  This phenomenon has caused the U.S. government to belatedly start regulating these drugs to deal with the harmful effects of opioids. As the U.S. government’s medical expenses for addiction to opioids recently rose to 78.5 billion dollars a year, Trump, the president of the United States, said, “The issue of the abuse of opioids is a national emergency.” Since 2000, more than 6,000,000 people have died because of opioids in Oklahoma alone. Oklahoma sued the pharmaceutical company, Johnson & Johnson. After that, the Oklahoma court made its first ruling to hold the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson responsible for the damages caused by opioid addiction. The court judged that the pharmaceutical company deceived doctors and patients by insisting that the risks of opioid’s addiction were not that serious through marketing activities.

  Currently, opioids are also used for medical purposes in South Korea. As they are being used legally, Korean governments and citizens should be wary of opioids so as not to replicate the horrible situation in the U.S.

By Kwon Ji-ye
whodrk@cbnu.ac.kr