Addressing the Opioid Crisis: Potential Solutions

1043 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay opioid epidemic women

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 …show more content…

Celebrities including Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, and Prince died under the influence of heroin or opioids. Aside from celebrity drug-related deaths or trending videos, when does the media accurately cover an article regarding these drugs and their consequences? Raising awareness and educating people about the dangers of opioid abuse, especially through the media, may assist in decreasing the opioid dilemma. Greg Williams, co-founder of “Facing Addiction,” presented the concept that the media does not accurately portray every individual carded as an “addict” or an “alcoholic,” stating, “The language that we use in our media … often creates this sense of, ‘Well, that's not me’” (Katel). Moreover, addiction needs to face an accurate and relatable portrayal, instead of withholding stereotypes. If all individuals, addicts included, do not receive an appropriate, unbiased education regarding the dangers of opioid addiction, the bias associated with addiction shall rise, and opioids shall continue to impact a wide array of lives. Informing individuals of opioid abuse could promote abstinence; however, inappropriate media coverage and ineffective teaching methods will not aid or admonish the opioid

Show More
Related

  • Argumentative Essay On The Opioid Crisis

    1170 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Heroin Cape Cod Summary

    936 Words  | 2 Pages

    The documentary Heroin Cape Cod, USA focused on the widespread abuse of pain medication such as Vicodin, Percocet, and Oxycodone that has led the U.S. into the rise of an opiate addiction. Many of the users within the video explained that it doesn’t matter where you go, there is no stopping, and you can’t just get high once. Instead, those who do it want that high forever. I think that this is a very important concept that those who aren’t addicted to drugs need to understand, no matter how hard it is to. The documentary featured many addicts including Marissa who first popped pills when she was 14 years old, Daniel who stated he started by snorting pixie sticks, and Arianna who started smoking weed and drinking before age 12. Additionally, the documentary interviewed Ryan and Cassie. These addicts explained that in Cape Cod you either work and you’re normal, or you do drugs.

    Read More

  • Chasing Heroin Analysis

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.”

    Read More

  • Suboxone Therapy

    1579 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Opioids

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    Opioids are used as pain relievers and although it does the job, there are adverse side effects. Opioids are frequently used in the medical field, allowing doctors to overprescribe their patients. The substance can be very addicting to the dosage being prescribed to the patient. Doctors are commonly prescribing opioids for patients who have mild, moderate, and severe pain. As the pain becomes more severe for the patient, the doctor is more likely to increase the dosage. The increasing dosages of the narcotics become highly addicting. Opioids should not be prescribed as pain killers, due to their highly addictive chemical composition, the detrimental effects on opioid dependent patients, the body, and on future adolescents. Frequently doctors have become carless which causes an upsurge of opioids being overprescribed.

    Read More

  • Opioids In Canada

    1721 Words  | 4 Pages

    Opioid overdose is currently the most common cause of accidental death in Canada and the U.S. The opioid crisis is having a devastating effect on communities across Canada, taking its toll on opioid users as well as their friends and families.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Opioids

    1523 Words  | 4 Pages

    According to CDC in the year 2015 opioids played a part in 33,091 deaths. Now you may ask what an opioid is. An Opioid is a compound that binds to opioid receptors in the body to reduce the amount of pain. There are four main categories of opioids, one being natural opioid analgesics including morphine and codeine, and semi synthetic opioid analgesics, including oxycodone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, and oxymorphone. The second category being methadone, a synthetic opioid, the third category being synthetic opioid analgesics other than methadone includes tramadol and fentanyl. The last category is an illicit opioid that is synthesized from morphine called heroin.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Opioid Abuse

    767 Words  | 2 Pages

    Every year, 2.6 million people in the United States suffer from opioid abuse and of that 2.6 million, 276,000 are adolescents, and this problem is only escalating. An individual’s physical and emotional health suffers as well as their personal lives as they lose employment, friends, family, and hope. Opioid addiction begins with the addictive aspects of the drug. People easily become hooked on the relieving effects of the opioids and suffer withdrawal symptoms if they stop using the drug completely because their nerve cells become accustomed to the drug and have difficulty functioning without it; yet the addiction to the drug is only one aspect of the complex problem. The stigma about opioid addiction has wide-reaching negative effects as it discourages people with opioid abuse problems from reaching out.

    Read More

  • Substance Abuse: Compaing the Medical/Disease Model and the Social Model

    1790 Words  | 4 Pages

    The two models for this paper sit on opposite sides of an argument to whether addiction is a choice. This is a common argument in the media, and even amongst professionals. It is also one which seems to flare when a person in the spotlight succumbs to an overdose. The latest, Philip Seymour Hoffman, reignited this debate recently in the media, Manejwala (2014) states that deaths of a famous person from addiction results in the methods behind treatment being reviewed and debated and this can be seen anecdotally in news across all media ...

    Read More

  • Narcotics Anonymous Research Paper

    1910 Words  | 4 Pages

    Substance addiction is becoming an epidemic. While some people can quit using a substance without any help, most people need help to their recovery. Narcotics anonymous is an important support group for our society. There are many different narcotic anonymous programs to join that have meetings throughout the week. The members of the support group all share one thing in common, they suffer from different types of chemical dependency. Members help each other because they have the same problems and worries that everyone in the room has. Though they may be struggling with different stages in their life, for the most part, they all relate to what each is going through. Just as AA, NA focuses on the 12-step program. The members of

    Read More

  • Drugs in American Society, by Erich Goode

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    Drug in the American Society is a book written by Eric Goode. This book, as the title indicates, is about drugs in the American Society. It is especially about the misuse of most drugs, licit or illicit, such us alcohol, marijuana and more. The author wrote this book to give an explanation of the use of different drugs. He wrote a first edition and decided to write this second edition due to critic and also as he mentioned in the preface “there are several reason for these changes. First, the reality of the drug scene has changed substantially in the past dozen or so years. Second much more information has been accumulated about drug use. And third, I’m not the same person I was in 1972.”(vii). The main idea of this book is to inform readers about drugs and their reality. In the book, Goode argued that the effect of a drug is dependent on the societal context in which it is taken. Thus, in one society a particular drug may be a depressant, and in another it may be a stimulant.

    Read More

  • Amy Winehouse Drug Abuse Research Paper

    826 Words  | 2 Pages

    Everyday people are peer pressured and influenced into multiple unhealthy behaviors. Acts such smoking, alcoholism, and unprotected intercourse are frequent issues in any lifestyle. Friends, family, and especially the media have a way of twisting a person’s mindset into believing these unhealthy choices are safe. Currently, the most reoccurring phenomenon is issues with drugs. More often than not, there are reports on people misusing and abusing drugs, particularly celebrities and athletes.

    Read More

  • Requiem For A Dream Addiction

    1700 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the United States today, drug use, substance abuse, and addiction are consistently growing dilemmas! At a young age we are asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Answers vary from doctor, police officer, astronaut, etc.; it is hard to image an individual saying, “I want to be addicted to drugs.” However, society witness’s individuals tumbling into drug addiction or other forms of addiction daily. This, in consequence, can cripple and prevent any person from accomplishing their childhood dreams. Addiction has many forms; this is evident in Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky’s critically renowned film, centered on the effects of drug use and misuse. The film conveys how quickly an individual can transition from recreational use to a drug addictive lifestyle. The film also addresses the pressing question, “Are legal and illegal drugs equivalent in terms of addiction?” Contrary to popular belief, drug dependence is not at all exclusive to illicit drugs and the “addicts” which confide in them. This is conveyed in the film through the evolution of Sara Goldfarb’s (Ellen Burstyn) character. A widowed mother, who becomes physiologically consumed on diet pills in hopes to be in peak condition when appearing on a game show. This molds another compelling topic: to what degree do drugs alter an individual’s physical

    Read More

  • Ecosocial Epidemiology Paper

    662 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ecosocial epidemiology accentuates the involvement of maco-level socio-environmental factors in understanding health (Nies & McEwen, 2015). Recently, the news has been overwhelmingly filled with horrific stories of young adults passing away from heroin overdoses. There has been a steady rise in the use of heroin in the United States with the use in the general population increased from 373,000 in 2007 to 914,000 in 2014 (Rollins, 2016). The major question is why there has been such dramatic rise in heroin use. Individual factors, such as age, race, gender as well as social/economic factors were investigated to determine the increase in prevalence of not only heroin use, but also the increase in early mortality from heroin overdose. It was concluded that there were several factors that placed a role in heroin use, including young adults being addicted to prescription opioids, alcohol, and marijuana, young adults who did not have health insurance, young adults living in large metropolitan areas, and young adults from the age eighteen to twenty-five years old who were white males (Rollins, 2016). This information is important because it allows us to predict the population that will be influenced most. Therefore, we can place more effort into education and health promotion techniques to reduce the prevalence of mortality

    Read More

  • The War On Drugs Is A Huge Failure

    1457 Words  | 3 Pages

    Helpfully, Switzerland recently experienced a public health crisis related to heroin use where HIV infection and street crime rates increased drastically (Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell, “Why The War on Drugs Is a Huge Failure”). Swiss authorities tried a new approach: harm reduction. Free heroin maintenance centers, where addicts would be treated and stabilized, were opened throughout the country. The centers provided free high-quality heroin, clean needles, access to safe injection rooms, showers, beds, and medical supervision. These centers allowed addicts to deal with problems in their lives, such as finding housing, and focus on getting better, instead of spending all their time and energy in financing their addiction.

    Read More

More about Addressing the Opioid Crisis: Potential Solutions

Open Document