Recently, based on US media reports, pop singer Demi Lovato was in Los Angeles hospital after suspected drug overdose. The Los Angeles Police Department reportedly responded on last Tuesday for a medical emergency in the Hollywood Hills, where Demi lives.
TMZ has reported that Demi Lovato has been hospitalized for a heroin overdose, according to law enforcement. But, the 25-year-old artist was found unconscious and treated at the scene after drinking Naloxone, an anti-overdose drug.
Demi Lovato is not the only Hollywood artist who was exposed to drugs. In 2014, Philip Seymour Hoffman, movie player Hunger Games died of excessive drug use. Heroin was found in the bathroom of his apartment, next to Hoffman's body.
Then retreated a year, in 2013, the media was shocked by the death of series Glee's main star, Cory Monteith. The actor was found dead at the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel in Vancouver, Canada, due to Heroin and Morphine and Codeine in his blood after the police conducted an autopsy.
The most hysterical was when Whitney Houston reportedly died in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton hotel, in 2012. Los Angeles County Coroner announced the death of the black-skinned singer was caused by cocaine and coronary artery disease.
Naloxone is a cure
If drug users overdose on substances containing fentanyl or other opioids such as heroin, methadone and morphine, naloxone can actually reverse the effects of overdose.
The naloxone drug is often referred to as a "save shot" or "rescue shot" because of its ability to bring someone back from an overdose. The brand name for naloxone is Narcan and Evzio. This drug has long been used in hospitals and also by emergency medical technicians, but now there is a movement to expand access and bring it to the hands of first responders as well as drug users and their family members.
Naloxone effectively pushes out against opioids from receptors in the brain. Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and pain relievers available legally by prescription, such as oxycodone (National Institute of Drug Abuse)
In doing this, he stopped all opioid effects - positive effects, such as high benefits and pain relievers, and the negative: including a lethal overdose.
United States General Surgeon, Dr. Jerome M. Adams, issued a national advisor urging more Americans to learn how to use naloxone drugs, which could save the lives of over-dose people in opioids. Naloxone has revived thousands of overdose victims as the opioid epidemic has escalated.
Naloxone is still limited throughout the country with its prescription requirements. Not all police and health departments can carry it, although they are often the first to respond to overdoses. Naloxone can be very expensive, making it difficult to ensure greater access even if a government wants to do it.
How Does It Work?
The naloxone effect lasts for about 30 to 90 minutes, which is usually enough to prevent a lethal overdose. It not only can save a person's life, but also to treat someone who is addicted, such as buprenorphine and methadone used in the long term.
There is still a risk in the use of Naloxone - Naloxone may disappear before an overdose. So a person can be fine while naloxone is in their body system, but then return to overdose immediately after it runs out. That is why it is often recommended that someone look for another emergency treatment quickly after applying naloxone.
Sometimes naloxone also requires several doses to treat opioids. This is because stronger darker opioid strains, such as fentanyl and analogue, are becoming more common.
While naloxone reverses the overdose of opioids, it also halts the effects of other opioids. This can reverse all the benefits of opioid pain relief temporarily, restoring a person's pain if they use opioids for that reason. If a person is physically dependent on drugs, it can also cause opioid withdrawal - which is often described as a mixture of the worst imaginable flu, terrible stomach aches, and excessive anxiety.
Are there any reasons behind?
Most artists don't have the same motive for using these drugs. They claim to consume drugs: including cocaine and heroin, when there is a problem or just to relieve stress / anxiety.
Some artists are also using crystal meth (shabu-shabu), pure white crystals. This is a class of methamphetamine stimulant drugs which are derived with amphetamines contained in ecstasy pills.
Some of them use this substance to get psychological effects. The most desirable effect is the feeling of euphoria to ecstasy (excessive pleasure). It also has the effect of increasing self-esteem and increasing libido. The user of methamphetamine can appear confident without any embarrassment and become a person of different personality than before.
One of the most interesting reasons is using of this substance is not accompanied by the effects of sedation or decreased awareness of the substance. Unlike heroin users, users of methamphetamine can make themselves stay awake and concentrate.
Another reason to use crystal meth is to reduce one's appetite. No wonder, the old days of this class of drugs are also widely used to diet even though this time has been abandoned because of the effects of dependence and brain damage.
Obviously people who use drugs will be more difficult in achieving their dreams and addictive substances make it dependable and if not fulfilled then all common sense cannot be used properly.
Source: BBC, People, VOX, CNN (edition.cnn.com), VancouverSun, thefader, National Institute on Drug Abuse (www.drugabuse.gov)