Patient Education Resources
Opioids are substances that act on opioid receptors to produce morphine-like effects.It is hard to decide when and where the opium poppy was first cultivated. It may have been grown for its seeds before people discovered how to prepare mekonion from the leaves and fruits of the plant or opium (from "opos," the Greek word for juice) from the liquid that appears on the unripe seed capsule when it is notched.
What is heroin?
Heroin is an opioid drug made from morphine, a natural substance taken from the seed pod of the Asian opium poppy plant. Heroin can be a white or brown powder, or a black sticky substance is known as black tar heroin. Other common names for heroin include dope, horse, junk, and smack.
The Science of Opioids - How do opioids work? We look at the physiological processes that let opioids produce their effects in human bodies.
HHS: Opioids: The Prescription Drug & Heroin Overdose Epidemic
Patient Information Guide on Long-term Opioid Therapy for Chronic Pain
About Opioids
Opioids: What Patients and Doctors Think, WebMD
Erowid is an educational nonprofit, whose mission is to “provide and facilitate access to objective, accurate, and non-judgmental information” about psychoactive substances. Users can assess benefits and risks by reading experience reports, and many vaults have a summary “Health” page. Erowid has also formulated a set of standard warnings, or “Erowid Notes,” which are used to flag risky activities in experience reports (“Driving while intoxicated, tripping, or extremely sleep deprived is dangerous and irresponsible because it endangers other people. Don’t do it!”).
The Trip Planners; The unusual couple behind an online encyclopedia of psychoactive substances.
BY EMILY WITT, New Yorker Nov 2015
Erowid
How a brain gets hooked on opioids
Pain and pleasure rank among nature’s strongest motivators, but when mixed, the two can become irresistible. Here is the science behind how opioids brew a perfect addiction in the brain.
The Opioid Crisis in America
Learn about the opioid epidemic in the United States, including information about treatment and recovery from opioid addiction.
Lesson 1: How has opioid misuse evolved and spread? Why is this a public health crisis in America?
Lesson 2: Are opioids "bad" drugs, or are there appropriate ways to use them?
Lesson 3: What counts as misuse and what can happen when you misuse opioids?
Lesson 4: How does opioid addiction affect an individual, their family, and the community?
Lesson 5: How can opioid overdose be treated and prevented?
Lesson 6: How can opioid misuse and addiction be treated?
Lesson 7: What does the process of long-term recovery from opioid addiction look like?