November 14, 2008, Newsletter Issue #209: Commonly Abused Narcotics

Tip of the Week

The following is a list of commonly abused narcotics and their street/slang names:

-- Heroin (dope, horse, smack, skag, H) is an opiate which has no legal medical uses. It is the most commonly abused narcotic in the US and is associated with thousands of deaths each year.

-- Morphine (monkey, white stuff, M) is a drug prescribed for moderate to severe pain. It is not a common street drug, but because of its availability in hospitals it is often abused by hospital workers or patients who have become addicted.

-- Codeine is an opiate prescribed for mild to moderate pain, diarrhea, and cough. Inside the body, it is metabolized to morphine. Vicodin is the brand name for a combination of codeine with the over-the-counter painkiller acetaminophen. Because it is fairly widely available, it is often abused, sometimes as a substitute for heroin, sometimes in combination with alcohol or marijuana.

-- Fentanyl, usually administered by a skin patch, is 50 times more potent than heroin and can potentially stop respiration. It is used as a painkiller in medical settings (where patients' breathing can be monitored) and is the topic of growing concern in the medical community, where anesthesiologists and other hospital workers are at special risk of addiction.

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