What is narcotic drug dependence?
Narcotics change your response to sensations. Narcotics also produce mood changes, unconsciousness, or deep sleep. Examples of narcotics are heroin, codeine, morphine, and methadone. The primary medical use of these drugs is to reduce pain. Narcotics are also available illegally and are frequently abused. Sometimes people become dependent on narcotics that are prescribed for pain and continue to use and abuse them when they are no longer needed to manage pain. When taken over time to reduce pain or for the pleasant, drowsy, floating feeling they give, narcotics may make you dependent or addicted. Also, if you take these drugs repeatedly you may develop a tolerance to them. Tolerance means you need to take ever higher doses of the drug to produce the same effects. If you are dependent on a drug, you feel or show a need for the drug when it is stopped. If you crave the drug, or feel distressed without it, you are psychologically dependent. If you have bodily changes when the drug is stop
