One of the drugs or rather class of drugs I’d like to discuss are opioids. These drugs/medications which have the tendency to be highly abused, but because of their properties in treating pain, these drugs are widely utilized in modern medical practices. Since the body naturally produces pain killers which are trace amounts of opioid compounds, actual pain killers or opioids enhance these pain killing mechanisms, therefore creating a significant potential for abuse in patients. This is discussed in detail in substance use and abuse in module 4.5. For example heroin has been used and abused throughout history, heroin is a derivative of opium which naturally occurs in poppy plants and by extension trace amounts of heroin could be found in opiate
