9781422279663

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Oxycodone is one of many popular opoid painkilling drugs. According to a national survey, in the past year almost 18 percent of high school students abused an opioid painkiller by taking it without a doctor’s prescription.

What’s What With Opioids T he original opioid is the opium poppy, which contains a narcotic drug known as opium. Opium is the basis for some of medicine’s most powerful painkillers. By itself, opium was used to relieve pain for thousands of years. Beginning in the 19th century, morphine was derived from opium. Other derivatives followed, like codeine. Semisynthetic opioids are created in labs from natural opioids. Examples are hydromorphone, hydrocodone, oxycodone (brand name OxyContin) and heroin. Fully synthetic opioids are completely man-made and include fentanyl, pethidine, levorphanol, methadone, tramadol, and dextropropoxyphene. Opioid drugs work by binding themselves to opioid recep- tors in the brain, spinal cord, and other areas. Chemically, they

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