Opioids are among the drugs commonly used recreationally. Opiates are opium extracts and they, along with opium derivatives and a number of synthetic opiate-like drugs are known collectively as opioids. Opium, heroin, morphine, methadone and codeine are prominent opioids and are also referred to as narcotics. The drugs are considered desirable by recreational users because they are analgesic (pain-relieving) and induce a state of euphoria.
The dangers of opioid abuse are primarily incidental and relatively few pharmacological dangers seem to exist. Morphine, opium, and heroin are taken recreationally by some people over a period of years and they are able to stop without difficulty. Opium can be taken without building up a tolerance to its euphoriant effects, but other opioid addicts must constantly increase their doses. Withdrawal is a painful and lengthy process. The reputation of heroin and morphine as extremely dangerous drugs appears, however, to be unfounded. According to Leavitt even "eminent research workers [and] officials of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs [were not] able to cite a single study or offer any data on harmful effects" (1995, p. 144). As with any drugs, responses to opioids vary and while their euphoric effects are experienced by unhappy people or those in pain, a happy, pain-free individual is likely to experience mild anxiety and fear if s/he uses one of these drugs.
Recent studies do, however, indicate that opioids depress the functioning of the immune system, which leads to greater susceptibility to infections and diseases such as AIDS. The analgesic qualities of opiates may also enable users to ignore pain that warns of various diseases. The most serious dangers of this group of drugs, however, are connected to the fact that some diluents used in street heroin can cause tissue injury and severe skin lesions while others may be poorly soluble and "intravenous injection of in...