Opioid Addiction Persuasive Speech

A man wakes up one day, early in the morning. He leaves his wife in bed to go take care of the children that have woken up and are in need of some breakfast. He gets the kids ready for the day after breakfast by getting them dressed and having them brush their teeth. He realizes that he needs a new diaper for the baby, since the one from overnight is soaked. He finally returns back to his bedroom to get the diapers and attempts to wake up his wife. Only to find out as he rolls her over that her lips are dark blue and she is stiff and cold. He breaks down into tears not knowing what had caused her sudden death. He calls 911. The ambulance come and take her body away to the hospital, where the pathologist does the autopsy revealing she had overdosed

Opioid addiction is becoming an increasing problem that is being ignored by the world and we can't seem to find an effective way to stop it from happening. Opiate addiction isn't solely focused on the adult population, each year there are more adolescents that begin to experiment with the use of opioid drugs such as Oxycodone, and it is ruining their lives. They think that they have nowhere to turn to get any help so they can get over their addiction, so they just continue to do opioid drugs without any guidance on how to stop and rehabilitate themselves. We need to help these adolescents relieve themselves from their addiction, so they can make it through life without having to rely on an addicting medication. The adolescent population is what is going to help influence how our future turns out. So, we need to take care of them the best we can and help them out during their times of struggle, even if it is a struggle with addiction. Causes that contribute to these adolescent's addiction are the following, depression, the affordability and easy access of Opioid drugs such as oxycodone, peer pressure from friends and acquaintances, and the increased use in pain

An adolescent may get into a car accident and be hospitalized for a few weeks, and while they are in the hospital they are on Oxycodone. When they finally get released they may be given a prescription to take home, but once the prescription runs out they aren't able to get another one, by this time they may have already developed a dependency on the drug and will try to find ways to get it either going back to the hospital and attempt to get them prescribed again, "or obtaining prescription medications from sources other than the primary prescriber (“doctor shopping,” buying on the black market, taking from a friend or family member)."(Jewell 32) This helps to understand that once a patient is prescribed these medicines and immediately taken off of them (instead of slowly being taken off of them), they will try and find alternative sources to try and help cope with their dependency on the drug. Although, there may be some patients that actually need Oxycodone to help with severe pains, it may not always be the best solution to help them with pain management. Based off of the extent of an adolescent patient's injuries there could be many other choices the doctors could make to help with getting their pain levels under control, it is just seen as an easy way to manage a