# 67

Huffington Post produces excellent report on Fentanyl and similar opioids which have produced an epidemic of overdose deaths in North America.  However, the writer attributes characteristics produced by Central Nervous System Stimulants ("high" and "euphoria") that are not produced by opioids from the line of substances known as Central Nervous System Depressants.

Young readers and their parents, hopefully in the status known as "the day before addiction," should not be misled by any source which uses the wrong descriptive terms to describe pharmaceutical effects.  The CNS responds to CNS Depressants by slowing heart rate and respiration, creating pinpoint pupils and constipation along with opioid brain receptors which are highly demanding for repeat dosages.  Additionally, every dose has brain activity which leads the body to nod as a prelude to sleep.  If the dosage is sufficient, the brain directs to body to slide down to coma; followed by death as the brain instructs the body to terminate respiration. 

There is no "high."

There is a "low" and the "low" can lead to death.

If anyone can use the term euphoria, then it should not suggest any heightened awareness of the CNS; this descriptor could only be compared to a dream-state that the user is descending down to...with opioids, the slide or elevator shaft always heads south.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fentanyl-overdose-deaths_us_575744dbe4b0a3d6fbd3168b