The spiking opioid abuse trend has the potential to corrupt entire cities and towns, from damaging local economies to ripping families apart, and even forcing unemployment to rise. Opioid use can result in fatal overdose, which accounts for more than fifty thousand deaths per year. Users who have yet to overdose are so dependent on pills that they can’t hold jobs. An opioid user can come from all walks of life, it could begin with a car accident where they got prescribed opioids, or a friend could’ve encouraged them to try it. The addiction is easy to hide until they become completely dependent on pills, they walk around sluggishly, waiting for their next high. The opioid epidemic needs to be stopped; America is already leading the world in drug overdoses.
History
Opium is derived from the opium poppy flower; more specifically, its milky sap. Some of the earliest uses of opium come from Mesopotamia in 3400 B.C. The narcotic was not only used for medicinal purposes; its name “Hul Gil,” which means Joy Plant, came from its recreational use (theatlantic.com). Ancient societies had many ways to utilize opium for things such as sleep aid, pain relief, and to calm crying infants. Eventually, opium spread to the ancient Greeks, Persians, and Egyptians, all using it for a very early and “crude version” of the anesthesia we use during surgery today (theatlantic). In the 1800’s, German chemist Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Serturner isolated morphine from opium, which led to morphine becoming “the new mainstay for medicine” throughout the 19th century, until users became heavily addicted. The addictions to morphine then led to the development and mass production of heroin as a way for morphine addicts to get over to their addictions, which, unsurprisingly led to yet another form of opioid that causes major addiction. In the late 1900’s pharmaceutical companies searched for more pain relievers, and eventually came up with Percocet, Vicodin, and oxycodone, reassuring doctors and patients alike that the users would not become addicted. With pharmaceutical companies creating more painkillers, illegal drug traffickers saw a bigger opportunity for profits and began producing synthetic opioids by the mass, which caused the American life expectancy to drop by two years in 2015 and 2016 (Hendi). In 2016, 64,000 people died from opioid overdoses, which is a higher death toll than guns, car crashes, and HIV/AIDS related deaths have had in one year in the U.S. Because doctors were tired of dealing with hard-to-treat, painful diseases, they signed prescription slips for any patient who had any sort of pain, which led to easier access to opioids than to tobacco.
Social Effects
Because of the number of opioids prescribed and circulating on the black market, there has been a sharp increase of children entering the foster care systems in nearly three quarters of the states, the primary reason for this being parental substance abuse. Not only are older children affected, but many newborns are born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, or NAS. According to the Center for Disease Control, the number of babies born with drug withdrawal symptoms has “quadrupled over the past 15 years,” (Matthew, Rivlin). NAS is a drug withdrawal symptom that occurs when mothers take drugs (usually opioids) and the drugs pass through the placenta and cause “serious problems” for your baby (Matthew, Rivlin). The symptoms begin to show almost immediately after birth, typically occurring among infants that were exposed to opioids in the womb. Newborns that experience this can suffer from seizures, poor feeding, breathing problems, and many more potentially life-threatening symptoms.
With Colombia supplying less poppies to produce heroin and other opioids, Mexico has stepped up to the plate, with their poppy production “expanding 800% in a decade” along with supplying 90% of the illegal opioids the U.S. ends up acquiring (Partlow). Guerrero, Mexico is the state with the largest amount of poppy production, producing “more than half of Mexico’s opium poppies,” but has also become the most violent state in Mexico with over 2,200 killings in the past year (Partlow). The organized crime in Guerrero used to be “more organized,” but when the heroin trade spread to Mexico, many new gangs and drug traffickers have moved to Guerrero, each fighting for a patch of land, in turn triggering the rise of citizen militias (Partlow). The crime lords keep their control over locals by paying the police off to be quiet and forcing local businesses into extortion, along with threatening kidnapping and robbery, and they are clearly not afraid to do so, because kidnappings are no rare occurrence. Guerrero was nowhere near as violent as it is now, but because of the new and popular poppy demand, it has fallen into a deep hole that it will likely never come out of.
Example One (Personal Experience)
My mom was my best friend in the early years of my life. We’d venture to the park, the movies, and the beach together; you name it, we did it. She was the liveliest woman anyone ever knew; she had an infinite sense of happiness, and her kindness towards others was like no other. We lived a simple life, in a simple town, doing simple things, but one day my whole world got flipped upside down.
When I was eight years old, my father came to get me from school, which was not a common occurrence. When I came up to him, his eyes began to water as he told me that my mom had been hurt in what I would later find out was a horrifying accident. When the paramedics arrived on the scene of the accident, they were appalled that she was still showing vital signs. What seemed like centuries later, she was out of the ICU, and I could visit her. During our visit, she told me she would never give up on me, along with the promise of going to the beach after she got out. That promise never came, but a new surge of despair did.
In the ensuing months after the accident, I imagined everything would go back to routine. Conversations shortened, attitudes worsened, but worst of all the mother that I once had disappeared. I anticipated better years ahead, that would consist of many beach trips, movies, and dance parties. However, I was wrong once again, and things only worsened. I started to piece everything together: the time she spent alone, excessive sleeping, the dirty house, but most of all, her new lethargic character. That’s when I understood the severity of the addiction in front of me. I pleaded with her to shed her habits, and eventually, she agreed. Once she realized she needed to change for the better, she ceased all drug use, and everything began to go back to normal. But the withdrawals were too powerful. Once she couldn’t fight the urge, she overdosed on opioids and began seizing. The seizure was so severe, her heart stopped beating. The period between the seizure and the influx of emergency responders was too extensive- the brain was deprived of oxygen. Within minutes, my mom's knowledge, character traits, and memories completely vanished. The next time I visited my mom in the hospital, it was like talking to a stranger, who looked an awful lot like my mother. Before I left, I told her I’d never give up on her, and to this day that remains true. Seeing her that way changed my perspective on any type of drug because I’ve seen the way it can tear a childhood and family apart.
Example Two
Opioid addictions are not something to be proud of, but they are something that needs to be made known so everyone is aware of the damage they can cause. In the article, “Some of the Best Opioid Coverage is Not Where You’d Expect,” many deaths by opioid abuse and overdose are brought to light, but not in a bad way. Instead, the victims’ families chose to highlight the good in their lives and inform the public that the addiction problems are very real and preventable through beautifully composed obituaries. These obituaries track the “devastating cost of a modern-day plague” and “build a case for better public policy and social services,” hopefully leading to those affected by addictions or those surrounded by addicts to address the issue, get help, and not feel ashamed (Clark). Many families of opioid overdose victims feel that honesty is their “first and best weapon,” and this cannot be closer to the truth; there will be no change unless there is more knowledge on the opioid epidemic and the fatalities associated with it (Clark).
Proj 2
The opioid epidemic has crippled America, resulting in the deaths of “more than 42,000” in 2016 alone, according to the NSC, and it’s only getting worse with time. According to the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, the epidemic “has quickly become one of the nation’s most lethal drug epidemics.” The opioid epidemic is a grave problem that must be addressed quickly to prevent the destruction of the thousands of lives who battle their addiction to opioids. There is a lot that can be done to improve the lives of Americans who are affected by the epidemic. The first major step to finding a solution to the complex problem is educating doctors on the drugs that they prescribe to the patients, secondly people must know about the epidemic, educational initiatives must be set up at schools to ensure the people are educated and know more about opioids, and lastly the government must get involved in the obtainment of opioids by enacting new laws and regulations on the national and state level which can greatly help the eradication of the epidemic by making it harder to purchase opioids.
Physicians lack of knowledge and understanding towards opioids is a grave problem which also leads to the abuse and mishandling of opioids. To solve this complex problem the people must resolve the root of the cause by stopping the abuse before it happens. The National Safety Council revealed new data showing that “99% of doctors are prescribing highly addictive opioid medicines for longer than the three-day period.” (NSC) This shows that doctors don’t understand the degree of damage that opioids can inflict upon an individual’s mind as NSC studies show “that 30-day use causes brain changes.” (NSC) The following data shows that doctors must not only be educated on the effects that opioids can cause, but should also be informed on how to safely prescribe doses of opioids to patients without causing any damage. This is vital to stop the root problem of the epidemic as many who do eventually become addicted were prescribed doses of opioids from their doctor. Furthermore, doctors also have such little information on the overall effectiveness of different pain medications this is seen according to VOX “74 percent of doctors incorrectly believe morphine and oxycodone, both opioids, are the most effective ways to treat pain” (VOX) but, over the counter medications such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen are more than effective in treating acute pain. This is exceptionally important as it shows that doctors don’t fully understand the uses of the drugs that they prescribe to patients. If doctors were to be educated on the correct use and need of opioids many cases of addiction could be avoided, it is now the duty of the people to make it a requirement for all medical professionals who have the ability to prescribe medications to be required to fully understand both how to safely prescribe opioids to patients and to understand when it is acceptable to prescribe these dangerous addictive medications.
Another solution to opioid epidemic is to educate the people about the problem, so many people are unaware of the epidemic that ruins thousands of lives daily. If the people were to fully understand the problem so much more could be done and new ideas could be bought to the table. Today according to German Lopez, the people within society “have no idea what amount of resources they need because they don’t know what they are dealing within the communities.” If people were to know more about the opioid epidemic so many people could then take matters into their own hands and come up with new and better solutions to help aid the thousands of addicts in our nation. Furthermore, once people do know more about the epidemic then they could also set up educational initiatives that would travel to schools and talk about this grave problem to students. This would be detrimental to the opioid epidemic because many of people who are addicted to opioids such as heroin or fentanyl start getting hooked at a young age. If we were to reach the people before they even have the chance to get addicted it would prevent so many people from getting hooked to these life threating drugs. Another great benefit of educating people about the opioid crisis is that people will then be able to further understand the whole problem and the other factors which also lead to opioid addiction. There are many factors which lead to addiction such as anxiety, depression, and abuse, these causes can be referred to as the root problems. Once the people are educated and know more about the epidemic and can teach about the root causes of addiction, only then the opioid disaster can be completely eradicated.
The governments involvement is crucial to ensure that this epidemic is defeated. If the government was to get more involved with this epidemic they could spread awareness and pass new laws that would make it harder to get opioids and abuse the system. For instance, the government could pass a law that would require all medical professionals who prescribe opioids to run background checks on all patients before they prescribe any type of opioid to patients. If the government did require background checks before opioid prescription then doctors and pharmacists could analyze any past drug or opioid abuse. Furthermore, the government could also expand medication-assisted treatment. For people who are addicted it is extremely difficult to get the proper treatment that is associated with the rehabilitation process. According to German Lopez from VOX “the country hasn’t done much to increase access to alternatives to opioids.” A lot like a nicotine patch, medications such as methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone all can be used to reduce the cravings felt by opioid addicts. If the government actively made it easier to obtain these affective alternative medications, and opened more treatment facilities then addicts would be more willing to undergo the lengthy treatment process. Lastly the government needs to make stricter regulations over the time that the FDA is still in the process of overlooking and accepting new medications. During this time period regulations over the newly manufactured drug are extremely limited and there is lots of room to abuse these new medications. The government must make new laws that will both improve the process in which new medications are approved and allowed into the market, and laws that will prevent drug companies to abuse their power of selling their new medications with limited regulations to the public.
Albert Camus, the French philosopher whose views greatly contributed to the rise of the philosophy known today as absurdism which questioned the meaning of our very existence. His philosophy can be directly connected to the rise of the deadly opioid epidemic. One of the main questions presented by absurdism is: what is the meaning of our existence. With thousands of people addicted to opioids and facing depression, one can conclude that all these people have not truly understood their own purpose in life and must constantly question their very existence. With the drastic rise of opioids, the philosophy of Albert Camus seems to come alive as we see millions turn to drugs to solve their feelings of emptiness not knowing what their true purpose in life is. The problem that the world faces is not getting any better and raises many questions along with the rising numbers. The last and main question that directly corresponds to Camus’s philosophy of absurdism is will the addicts pain ever completely go away. Sadly, the pain will always reside, addiction is a disease that a person will fight for the rest of their lives. Overall, the depressing philosophy of Camus is seen today and highlighted by analyzing the deadly and tragic opioid epidemic that consumes the lives of countless Americans today.
Overall the opioid epidemic is a tragic and deadly event that must be addressed and bought to light quickly so that the lives of millions of Americans can be restored. The only way for this grave problem to be completely resolved is for the government and people to come together to find new ways to tackle this complex problem. Once everyone comes together we will be able to find new resolutions to eradicate the growing problem quickly and effectively.
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