Heroin, methadone, Vicodin and OxyContin are some of the best known and most abused downers. The rise in the abuse of prescription drugs has recently led to many more, sometimes violent robberies of pharmacies, and overall a significant increase in overdoses. And increasingly the opioid treatment medication suboxone is being abused. We are clearly moving into a “downer cycle” of drug use and abuse after a couple of decades where uppers were the drugs of choice, especially meth. We look at the latest trend and some of the implications.