Opioids vs. Opiates: What’s The Difference?
You may have heard people use these two terms interchangeably in the past. However, there’s a distinct difference between the two.
While both of these kinds of drugs do have narcotic pain-relieving effects, opiates are naturally derived from the opium poppy. The sap of this plant organically contains these psychoactive chemicals and can actually be gathered right from the poppy itself.
The four types of naturally occurring opiates are:
- Morphine (Arymo ER, Kadian, MorphaBond ER, MS Contin)
- Codeine (Pyregesic-C, Tylenol w/Codeine, Brontex, Phenergan, Vanacof)
- Thebaine
- Papaverine
Opioids, on the other hand, are either synthetic (entirely man-made) or semi-synthetic (part man-made and part organic from the poppy).
Some of the most popular synthetic opioids are:
- Fentanyl (Abstral, Actiq, Duragesic, Fentora)
- Tramadol (ConZip, Ultram)
- Methadone (Dolophine, Methadose, Diskets)
- Meperidine (Demerol HCl)
The most common semi-synthetic opioids include:
- Heroin
- Hydromorphone (Dilaudid, Dilaudid-5, Exalgo)
- Oxymorphone (Opana, Opana ER, Numorphan HCl)
- Hydrocodone (Hysingla ER, Zohydro ER, Vicodin)
- Oxycodone (Oxaydo, OxyContin, Oxyfast, Roxicodone, Xtampza ER
As the epidemic has continued to escalate and get more attention from the media and government agencies though, the term “opioid” is now generally used to refer to all natural, semi-synthetic, and synthetic opioids.
For the purposes of this guide and to maintain clarity throughout, the term opioid will be used this way to refer to both opioids and opiates.
Are Prescription Opioids Just As Dangerous As Illicit Ones?
The short answer here is that they certainly can be.
One of the most alluring aspects of abusing prescription opioids is the fact that these pills are actually legal, as opposed to street opioids like heroin – a Schedule I narcotic according to the DEA.
And in the mind of many people, if a drug is legal, it’s got to be safer to use and abuse than street drugs.
This notion, however, is not necessarily true.
Clinical Use of Opioids
When used properly and according to a legitimate prescription, clinical opioids can be quite safe and incredibly helpful. But when abused, they can actually become just as deadly as street drugs like heroin. And in some cases, they can even be more dangerous.
Fentanyl, for instance, is a synthetic prescription opioid that’s anywhere from 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. Heroin, for comparison, is only about 2 to 5 times as strong as morphine.
In fact, when you look at the hard numbers, prescription opioids like fentanyl and drugs like Vicodin regularly kill more people than heroin.
In 2016 alone, more than 17 thousand people lost their lives due to a prescription opioid overdose. Compare that to about 15.5 overdose deaths caused by heroin. It seems, then, that just because a drug is legal doesn’t mean it’s safe.
And to make things even more complicated, prescription drug abuse regularly leads to using illicit street drugs like heroin. Around 80% of heroin addicts say that their drug habits started with abusing prescription opioids. And 94% said they made the switch because this deadly street drug was both cheaper and easier to get their hands on.
Even now as opioid prescriptions are dropping, death rates still continue to rise. And that’s because so many addicts are dropping their prescription drug addiction and turning instead to heroin..