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There is an epidemic plaguing our nation, a plague that does not discriminate between young, or old, rich or poor, the plague is the addiction to Oxycontin. A prescription narcotic first introduced 1996 by the Purdue Pharmaceutical Company ("The Promotion and Marketing of Oxycontin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy). The drug Oxycontin was quickly marketed, and aggressively promoted. The pharmaceutical corporation in 1996 made $48 million dollars and in the year 2000 that sum was about 1.1 billion dollars ("The Promotion and Marketing of Oxycontin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy). The miracle medication was intended for cancer patients whose pain level was not controlled with regular opioid medications ("The Promotion and Marketing of Oxycontin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy). Oxycontin was a wonder drug for pain, beating out Morphine sulfate. Drug companies were encouraged to market the drug to doctors throughout the nation by offering large bonuses to each drug representative for the amount of doctors who would sign up ("The Promotion and Marketing of Oxycontin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy”) and this is how the plague of the nation started.
In the United States the overdose deaths have gone up 300% since 1999 in just the sales of prescription Oxycontin. In the 2008 the drug Oxycontin had a relationship to over 14,800 overdose deaths, this account for more deaths than cocaine and heroin combined (“The Promotion and Marketing of Oxycontin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy”). From the person using the medication in a way not intended resulted in more than 475,000 emergency room visit in 2009, and this number is expected to raise at least five percent every five years (“The...
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... from http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Treating_opiate_addiction_Detoxification_and_maintenance.htm
Smith, J. (2013, October 8). WV MetroNews – West Virginia ranks first in drug overdose deaths. Retrieved from http://wvmetronews.com/2013/10/08/west-virginia-ranks-first-in-drug-overdose-deaths/
Skarnulis, L. (2012). Oxycontin: Pain relief vs. abuse. In WebMD Pain Management. WebMD. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/features/oxycontin-pain-relief-vs-abuse
CDC. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/rxbrief/
Montgomery, J. (2013). Substance abuse health library. Retrieved from http://consumer.healthday.com/encyclopedia/substance-abuse-38/drug-abuse-news-210/prescription-drug-addiction-648263.html
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Treating_opiate_addiction_Detoxification_and_maintenance.htm
The documentary states that over 27,000 deaths a year are due to overdose from heroin and other opioids. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2015 prescription pain relievers account for 20,101 overdose deaths, and 12,990 overdose deaths are related to heroin (Rudd et al., 2010-2015). The documentary’s investigation gives the history of how the heroin epidemic started, with a great focus on the hospice movement. We are presented with the idea that once someone is addicted to painkillers, the difficulty in obtaining the drug over a long period of time becomes too expensive and too difficult. This often leads people to use heroin. This idea is true as a 2014 survey found that 94% of respondents who were being treated for opioid addiction said they chose to use heroin because prescription opioids were “more expensive and harder to obtain (Cicero et al., 2014).” Four in five heroin users actually started out using prescription painkillers (Johns, 2013). This correlation between heroin and prescription painkiller use supports the idea presented in the documentary that “prescription opiates are heroin prep school.”
...n overdose mortality after the opening of North America'ss first medically supervised safer injecting facility: a retrospective population-based study. Lancet, 377(9775), 1429-1437.
Almost one hundred years ago, prescription drugs like morphine were available at almost any general store. Women carried bottles of very addictive potent opiate based pain killers in their purse. Many individuals like Edgar Allen Poe died from such addictions. Since that time through various federal, state and local laws, drugs like morphine are now prescription drugs; however, this has not stopped the addiction to opiate based pain killers. Today’s society combats an ever increasing number of very deadly addictive drugs from designer drugs to narcotics to the less potent but equally destructive alcohol and marijuana. With all of these new and old drugs going in and out of vogue with addicts, it appears that the increase of misuse and abuse is founded greater in the prescription opiate based painkillers.
The United States of America accounts for only 5% of the world’s population, yet as a nation, we devour over 50% of the world’s pharmaceutical medication and around 80% of the world’s prescription narcotics (American Addict). The increasing demand for prescription medication in America has evoked a national health crisis in which the government and big business benefit at the expense of the American public.
Painkillers have been used for many years, and they have been beneficial to many. But one that recently took the market has been the topic of many controversial discussions. Oxycodone has always been used in modern medicine but in small amounts. OxyContin contained a higher amount of oxycodone than most opiate based pain killers, the weakest dose of OxyContin had double the amount found in said painkillers (Meier 12). This lead to the spread of abuse and addiction towards the drug. And a medicine made to do nothing but help became the subject of overdose and death. The creation of OxyContin was a triumph for modern medicine and a halo of light to people with chronic pains, but this drug now seems to carry a trail of addiction and abuse along with it.
America is a country with abundant opportunities. The general public can gain access to almost anything with minimal effort. Through this convenience, drugs are becoming increasingly more accessible and overdosing is at an all-time high. In an effort to curb the endless overdoses, select cities in America hope to introduce safe injection centers. While safe injection sites are a valid response to opioid and other drug overdoses, they come with their own shortcomings.
Prescription and pharmaceutical drug abuse is beginning to expand as a social issue within the United States because of the variety of drugs, their growing availability, and the social acceptance and peer pressure to uses them. Many in the workforce are suffering and failing at getting better due to the desperation driving their addiction.
Opioid’s chemical composition consist of many highly addictive substances which cause the human body to become quickly tolerant. Many opioid users become addictive to the substance because the doctors have been over prescribing. “In the United States, there were 14,800 annual prescribed opioid (PO) deaths in 2008” with the US having less restrictions (Fischer, Benedikt, et al 178). The United States have implemented more regulations so that “high levels of PO-related harms been associated with highly potent oxycodone formulas” will decrease (Fischer, Benedikt, et al 178). With the regulations, it does not change the fact that opioids are is destructive. The regulations assistance by lessening the probability of patients becoming addictive to opioid. There are numerous generations that are effected and harmed by the detrimental effects of opioids on opioid-dependent patients.
On the typical day, over 90 people will die at the hand of opioid abuse in America alone (National). In fact, as of 2014, nearly 2 million Americans were dependent and abusing opioids. The Opioid Crisis has affected America and its citizens in various ways, including health policy, health care, and the life in populous areas. Due to the mass dependence and mortality, the crisis has become an issue that must be resolved in all aspects.
A young mother suffers a heroin overdose. She lays lifeless amid the aisle of a Massachusetts Family Dollar, and the cries of her daughter erupt upon social media, for a bystander recorded the distressing incident. A hopeful young man, one week following his rehabilitation discharge, died inside of his Colorado home, overdosing on sedatives and opioids. (The Opioid Crisis, Peter Katel). The heroin and opioid crisis continually fluctuates within the United States, and many experts contemplate whether unique programs and medical institutions can provide for these abusers and evade a steady growth in the opioid epidemic. Concepts to reduce the opioid crisis include promoting awareness of opioid history, establishing safe-injection sites, advocating
Overdose related deaths have become more and more frequent in many areas. Reports from Ohio conclude that over the course of a year the morgues have seen the highest body count of overdosed caused deaths and 86% of the overdoses was caused by opioids (Wasser, 2017). On average in the year of 2016 the United States lost 115 Americans a day to the opioid epidemic. Due to the heightened amount of opioid induced deaths, investigations have concluded that the highest number of overdoses were caused by a new highly dangerous synthetic drug called Fentanyl. Fentanyl is a thousand times stronger than strait heroin and is far more deadly. Opioid users are unknowingly purchasing opioids on the streets that have contained traces of Fentanyl in them, which have led to the overdoses of many individuals (Branson,
From as early as the 1990s, there has been statistical data to show that the opioid addiction epidemic has seen its significant amount of overdose death rates, sales and substance abuse of these prescription pain relievers increased over time. Regarding an outstandingly high concentration of opioid use in areas such as Delaware, Washington D.C, New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, the United States has currently approximately that now as many as 20.1 million Americans addicted to some type of opioid (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). Some of these most commonly prescribed opioid that is provided to some patients are Oxycodone, Vicodin and Percocet to effectively reduce chronic pain symptoms for either a short or long period
Opioid abuse and addiction is a serious problem and the point of contention as of recently. The quantity of narcotics prescribed here in Georgia alone is staggering. In a one year span, doctors and surgeons prescribed
Although there was an increase in the use of painkillers, the amount of pain reported in the United States has not changed. The current use of opioids is the worst drug crisis in the history of America.
"OxyContin: The History of OxyContin." Drug Rehab, Alcohol Addiction Treatment and Detox | Michael's House. Web. 22 June 2010. .