A small girl, about age 5, is holding her mother’s hand in a supermarket while crying profusely, confused and terrified, she’s about to understand that her mother, who just overdosed on opiates will never wake up again. This child has become permanently traumatized. Opioid Addiction does not merely affect the addict, but everyone around them. Ironically the medication that’s supposed to kill pain, kills patients and wreck the lives of their loved ones.
Opioid-related deaths have overtaken casualties caused by car crashes and by 2025 they are projected to skyrocket, by 147%. Yet there seems to be very litter done to combat this tragic epidemic. One reason is that many view addictions as a consequence of moral decay in addicts and assume that it’s only a problem of corrupt characters, yet this is far from the truth. Opioids are prescribed daily to patients — as a remedy for chronic pain — oblivious to their consequences and the hell that they are about to dive into. Many patients do not have the time or expertise necessary, to question their doctors prescribed medicine, hence leading to innocent people coming out of the hospital with prescribed opioids, becoming permanently hooked. Accidental opioids addiction has destroyed dads, moms, and children to community leaders and to close friends that many grew up with since childhood.
It staggering to me that despite its horrific death tolls and a net negative impact, they are still being prescribed. In order to stop this epidemic, patients’ needs to be clearly informed about the consequence of this prescription and asked to sign a written consent before it administered. Furthermore, through campaigns, America needs to be informed that addiction is a neurological and mental disease; in order to remove the stigma against addicts, making it easier for them to rehabilitate. Lastly and ideally, more capital needs to be allocated towards opioids addiction research to reverse its effects or synthesize a better alternative to these drugs because as of today, no one is safe from its procurement.
