Oxycodone, as found in OxyContin, Roxicodone or Percocet, is a powerful opioid painkiller. It is one of the most commonly abused prescription drugs in the United States (2019 Government Health Statistics) and many other countries around the world.
Many people who abuse oxycodone start out taking a prescribed amount—but as their body develops a tolerance to the drug, they need a higher dose to maintain the same relief or high.
The transition from use to abuse to addiction can be a quick and dangerous road. Oxycodone is a powerful drug and offers much-needed relief to many people struggling with painful or terminal conditions; as such, it can be hard to stay in control.
Oxycodone addiction is a very serious condition - not only is it an expensive and debilitating addiction, overdose from oxycodone is a very real—and potentially deadly—possibility.

Morphine is an opiate drug prescribed by a physician to relieve severe pain. Morphine takes its name from Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams, due to its euphoric properties which are often described by users as a dreamlike state. The drug can be taken in the form of a tablet, syrup, injection or smoked.
Morphine has the potential to be highly addictive, as tolerance to it develops rapidly. In the United States, morphine is listed as a Schedule II drug that is used to treat moderate, severe, and chronic pain. It is also used for pain relief after major surgeries, treatment for cancer-related pain, and shortness of breath at the end of a patient’s life.

Ketamine has hallucinogenic and sedating effects, which produce an out of body experience (dissociative) in which the user feels detached from themselves and reality. A ketamine user’s perceptions of sight and sound can often be distorted, making it difficult for them to move. For this reason, and because it is odourless and colourless, it has been used as a ‘date rape’ drug. In some extreme cases users have reported feeling a ‘near death’ experience while others have experienced feelings of ‘complete bliss’.

Ketamine has hallucinogenic and sedating effects, which produce an out of body experience (dissociative) in which the user feels detached from themselves and reality. A ketamine user’s perceptions of sight and sound can often be distorted, making it difficult for them to move. For this reason, and because it is odourless and colourless, it has been used as a ‘date rape’ drug. In some extreme cases users have reported feeling a ‘near death’ experience while others have experienced feelings of ‘complete bliss’.

Fentanyl is an opioid pain reliever which is between 50 and 100 time stronger than morphine. Fentanyl is a synthetic pharmaceutical drug that is legally available by prescription from a doctor.

Fentanyl is used to treat patients who are in severe pain, such as after surgery, during cancer treatment or when a patient is experiencing breakthrough pain (a flareup of intense pain that ‘breaks through’ whatever narcotic pain relief the patient is already taking). It is also used as part of general anaesthetic or conscious sedation during surgery or painful medical procedure.

Marijuana is a psychoactive drug that alters perception. Marijuana contains tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the chemical compound that causes the drug’s effects. The effects of marijuana may be different for everyone and depend on how it is consumed. Smoking marijuana produces a faster, shorter-lived high than taking it orally.

A member of the Amphetamine family of drugs, meth, or methamphetamine, is a highly addictive central nervous system stimulant. Under the influence of meth, users experience a rush of dopamine produced by the drug. Dopamine is the chemical in the brain that is responsible for feelings of pleasure, as well as motivation, memory retention, learning, and reward processing. The rush of dopamine produced by meth is much higher than the natural amount of dopamine that is produced in the brain, which causes people to continue using the drug in order to keep those heightened pleasurable feelings.
Many individuals who use meth take it over a period of many days and nights, staying perpetually high, which typically leads to a tolerance of the drug. Having taken it for a prolonged period of time, the user requires higher and higher doses to feel the same effects and the cycle of addiction begins.

Heroin is one of the most addictive substances in existence. It is a potent opiate drug made from morphine, a natural substance taken from the seed pod of the various opium poppy plants grown in Southeast and Southwest Asia, Mexico, and South America. It comes in a white or brown powder, or a black sticky substance known as black tar heroin. Users inject, sniff, snort or smoke heroin.

It is important to note from the outset that cocaine is a highly addictive substance. An individual does not need to be a long-time user to develop an addiction to cocaine. It can happen very quickly and can go unnoticed by friends and family for a remarkably long time. What starts off as seemingly harmless experimentation and ‘fun’ can quickly turn into a potentially life-threatening addiction with significant personal, professional, financial, and familial consequences.

Our loved ones are the most important people in our lives; the people we want to share things with, the people who we support and who we seek support from. However, being in a relationship with a partner that has an addiction to alcohol or drugs can lead to an unhealthy relationship with emotional stress, negativity, chaos, confusion and even abuse.
Substance abuse can eventually destroy a couple by undermining trust, which weakens the bond between partners. If children are part of the relationship, conflicts over parental responsibilities, as well as neglect, can occur as the result of one partner’s drinking or drug use.