Nearly 100 people die each day from an opioid overdose. Whether via prescription drugs or synthetic, black market opioids, families are being torn apart roughly every 15 minutes, and Trump is doing nothing about it.
This is a serious subject, and I’m sorry if it scares you, but if you don’t already know, well, it’s not just about drug addicts OD’ing because they wanted to get high. It’s barely about that. Nearly 100 people die PER DAY in America from opioid overdoses, and until recently, more than half were from doctor-prescribed painkillers that had addictive properties and from doctors who kept prescribing higher and higher doses. In short, the patient presents with pain, they get the medication, over time pain sensitivity grows because that’s a side effect of most opioids, and then the pain returns and the doctor prescribes more. Additionally, the government financially supports some healthcare professionals who turn in surveys showing highly satisfied patients, meaning that the patient says they like the effect of the opioids and love the doctor for prescribing so much and the doctor gets more money than when the patients check “dissatisfied” on the survey because the doctor acts responsibly by cutting them off because they seem to be getting hooked.
We’ll get to that, but first, take a look at this chart that shows the number of deaths from opioids per year in the United States.
Thanks for shedding an incisive light on this. We need to remove the stigma of “the junkie” and start viewing sufferers as not so different from ourselves.
Jessica, you’re right. They’re just like us. While one person is more susceptible to addiction, someone else is more likely to contract something that an addict would not.
If we see the potential for ourselves to become victims, then we won’t want to marginalize, discredit, or look down upon someone who is suffering already.
I’m glad to have you here. If you have any additional information about the opioid crisis, I’d be happy to hear from you.
To me it’s just like homelessness or any social issue. There but for the grace of the Force go I.
Exactly, and this is definitely a social issue, a national crisis. The White House wants to treat it like a crime and go after the addicts.
They need to treat the wounded AND go after the criminals, but the victims aren’t the criminals.
They should go after the opioid production companies in China that operate online pharmacies and load these drugs onto megaton container ships.
Imprison more. Teach less. Increase Federal Civil Forfeiture. Beat down the poor, old, most at risk, helpless. Take away our social safety nets. Leave people uninsured. Loyalty. Restrict the First Amendment. Attack the free . Turn the people into a subclass below the super wealthy who run the country. Blind nationalism. It’s almost as if someone was trying to make the US more like an autocracy, like Russia or something.
They believe they have all the answers, some incontrovertible plan that will fix everything, just so long as we fall in line or get out of the way.
They can try to force us, but regardless of their methodology, their solutions are wrong, out of date, and out of touch, and I hope they learn that before more people get hurt.
Working on the front lines of this exact problem, I think this was well written, informative, and kept the politics out of it for the most part. Very well researched and constructed.
I don’t agree with you politically in some areas, but I think one of the best ways to combat this particular epidemic is people like you educating others in just this way. Very good job!
Thank you so much for the work that you do. Since you have personal experience, please share what an individual can do on their own to stop this epidemic. Anything little they can do.
I’m glad you’re here. At times, we’ll disagree, but it makes me just as excited to hear a dissenting opinion than my own opinion repeated back to me. That’s how we can actually get somewhere!
If you have any additional information on the opioid epidemic, I’d love to hear from you.
Individuals who ARE addicted can absolutely ask for help. I know it may seem (from the outside) that it is shameful. But healthcare workers deal with it all the time. I’d much rather hear a patient say “I think I’m addicted, can you help me out?” Than have to dodge around their vomit in the trauma room while they aspirate and die. Besides nurses are absolutely cool with questions like this, and have tons of resources to give you for free. Same with pharmacists. Will we talk about you after you’re gone? Yeah. But we’ll say things like “Hats off for that kid. He’s doing the right thing.”
Individuals who KNOW someone who is addicted, use these resources:
Crisis Call Center
800-273-8255 or text ANSWER to 839863
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week
http://crisiscallcenter.org/crisis-services
The National Alcohol and Substance Abuse Information Center
800-784-6776
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week
http://www.addictioncareoptions.com
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism
800-662-HELP (4357)
Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week
http://www.niaaa.nih.gov
Let them know they’re in good hands and you want to be someone they can go to. Give them the numbers.
Healthcare providers can help by asking the hard questions about drug therapies and how the patient takes them. Addiction is such a taboo, which is laughable, because everyone has them.
I’ve personally seen 60 lbs of necrotic tissue carved off an ugly person’s naked backside and crotch. Complete with maggots.
Someone asking for help for an addiction is a breath of fresh air. Literally in some cases.
Walk into anyplace with a nurse…and just give it to them straight. It might be an awkward three minutes, but after that they’ll help you! Besides, it isn’t nearly as awkward as “fidget spinner stuck on penis” written on the ER admission board.
Thank you for providing this valuable information.
Anyone reading this should know that we all have addictions, and that’s okay. Might even be a part of being human. What’s not okay is the stigma that having an addiction makes you somehow inferior. That’s not true. We used to say a physical impairment meant you were also somehow dumber than others, and that’s now widely considered ridiculous.
However, mental illness and addiction both seem to imply that you’re not as valuable. As a society, we need to be more mature than that.
You’re definitely just as valuable and definitely worth saving. No matter what.
So text or call one of the numbers above if you need help or know someone who does. It doesn’t have to be a perfect message either. “Help” will do just fine.