Opioids are killing Americans throughout the world and decreasing their lifespans overall. According to a medical report from JAMA Opioids take about 3 months off our lives. In 2015 life expectancy in the US decreased since the year 1993. Deaths from drug overdose continue to get higher and according to The Center for Disease control there were 64,000 deaths from a drug overdose in 2016. The amount of deaths related to Opioid’s has multiplied by four since 1999. One of the main causes for opioid overdose deaths has been from heroin and fentanyl. According to the CDC Fentanyl is the number one cause of opioid overdose. (CNN)
The situation is getting terrible and more worse. Overdose deaths will continue to soar until opioids start to get prescribed in a more careful way and until the treatment for opioid addiction is easier to obtain. Opioids are drugs that raise levels the of nervous system and make you feel a high when taking. The drugs are made from opium and some are synthetic. Hydrocodone and oxycodone are the most frequently prescribed opioids in the US. Opioids are good medicines for relieving pain. They help when you use them after having surgery or after an accident. Most Opioid prescriptions in the US are prescribed for cases of back pain. In situations like these Opioids hurt people more than help them because they can become addicted after using for a long period of time. (Centers for Disease Control, 2017) Opioid pain relievers are safe when taken for a short amount of time and as prescribed from a doctor, but because they give a euphoria feeling with the pain relief they end up getting misused. (NIDA)
Opioid pain relievers are used non- medically by patients and sold in the neighborhoods. In 2012 5 percent of people in the US that were the age 12 or older used opioid prescriptions in a non-medical way. There are consequences of Opioid pain killer abuse and they unpleasant. Prescribed pain relievers that are abused by women that are pregnant can produce many problems in newborn babies which is called neonatal abstinence syndrome. Problems have increased because Opioid prescriptions are given to pregnant women at a very high rate. In the US there are about 14.4 percent of women that are pregnant are given an opioid prescription when they are pregnant. (NIDA)
Most overdose deaths from opioids were from prescription opioids until 2011. Deaths from opioid prescriptions settled down while overdose deaths from heroin started to rise. So, you are wondering why this happened? Drug addicts went from Prescription opioids to using Heroin because the government put a stop to painkillers. A great amount people who used heroin after 1995 changed from prescription opioids to using heroin because it was easier to get. The use of Heroin from whites has risen since 2011. From the beginning of the crisis adults who were addicted to opioids would move to using heroin because it wasn’t expensive. (NIDA)
As individuals shifted to Heroin, the supply of heroin became dangerous. This raised overdose deaths from Heroin in 2011. Fentanyl a less expensive synthetic opioid started getting mixed with Heroin and being sold as Heroin. Examiners trained in medicine didn’t drug test persons that overdosed on Heroin but once they started to, data shows that in 2016 deaths from Fentanyl exceeded deaths from opioid prescriptions and heroin. (U.S Department of Justice)
Prescription opioid abuse is expensive. The use of opioid pain killers non- medically costs insurance agencies 72.5 billion yearly in costs of healthcare. (NIDA) The opioid situation is breaking apart communities and families. The health and human service department and NIS is taking different steps to deal with this issue. They are trying to improve the access to getting treatment and services of recovery by include new programs and mobilizing resources to grow the overall quality and availability of lifelong recovery. The resources will help the women that are pregnant and prisoners that are in jail. (USA Today, 2017)
The NIH is finding new ways to stop opioid misuse and to control pain. NIH is forming partners with pharmaceutical companies and endorsing drugs that can prevent an opioid overdose and developing strategies that can be effective and that don’t cause addiction to help with the constant pain. (NIDA) The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration or SAMHSA gave $46 million dollars to programs to 22 states in the US to give resources to people who arrive and assist in emergencies and to those who work with people which are at high risks. (USA Today, 2017)
-Naveed Ahmed
Sources-
https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-crisis
https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/opioid-epidemic-in-6-charts/
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/19/health/opioids-life-expectancy-study/index.html
"In The World of Drugs" 
In Virginia Attorney General Herring has declared the opioid epidemic a top priority. Herring has even been recognized with the Bronze Key award for his efforts in Virginia to combat heroin and prescription opioid abuse. He launched a statewide heroin and prescription drug abuse strategy that has a five part action plan. One aspect of this plan is enforcement; it is important to investigate any drug trafficking operations and evaluate manufacturers to assure they are not participating in any illegal practices. The distribution of opiates and heroin is a business that must be regulated so that it does not exist in the state. Another aspect is focusing on legislation. There has been a statewide naloxone expansion. Naloxone is the drug that counteracts the effects of both opioids and heroin. Naloxone has reversed thousands of opioid and heroin overdoses so making this drug legal was a pivotal step in helping those who suffer from those addictions. The third part of this plan is focusing on education. People need to be educated about these drugs and what they can do so they can properly determine whether or not to use them. Herring was responsible for premiering a documentary in Virginia about heroin abuse aimed to educate the public. Prevention is the fourth part of Herring’s plan which happens when the public is educated. The last aspect is treatment. It is crucial to tend to the people who have heroin and opiate addictions so that they get help and can better themselves. When they better themselves, they better the community as a whole.
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One thing that I think is important to take into consideration is the fact that many drug rehabilitation centers aren’t well funded, and I believe that if they were better funded it would truly help with getting people off the streets doing drugs, and into the rehabilitation centers they need to be in. I would also like to know which age range is at the most risk of becoming a heroin or opioid addict, and if there are certain warning signs we should watch out for when it comes to looking for people who may be addicted to one of the drugs you have mentioned. I would like to know if there are other steps that doctors or law makers could take to lower the rate of opioid addiction, like lowering the average dose of said medicine, or monitoring people who do start the medication. Is there anything we as civilians can do to help this situation?
-Hannah Reid
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I find it interesting that it became easier to acquire heroine rather than opioid pills. It is also interesting to me how large of a market is spent on opioids each year by those misusing the drug. As a way to combat this we need to focus on providing more knowledge to elementary and middle school students on the negative effects of these drugs. If we can influence the decisions of future individuals on using and abusing drugs we could eventually get rid of the entire problem. In order to combat the problem that we have now there needs to be more rules and laws implemented to prevent people from having access to the opioid pills. There needs to be tougher laws on the use of heroine to stop individuals from using it as well. If we can stop the problem now it can lead to there being less of a problem in the future. We could control the problems of drug abuse later if we start implementing rules and laws now to combat them.
-Christian Trayer
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One of the things we have to do to counteract the oipiod problem is look at the prescribing techniques of medical professionals. It is far to easy to get pain killers in todays society right now. Maybe have certain certifications and classes that doctors and medical proffesionals take to educate them on the prescribing of these opiods? These certifications would hopefully guarantee that the doctor has been educated on the safest and necessary prescribing techniques. Also, is there some sort of education we can give to teenagers and young adults on the correlation between opioids and later onto heroin? I think what makes the opioid epidemic so unique is the fact that it affects every type of individual. No matter the class you are in in society you could be affected by this problem. If we choose to universally educate every person in the country with these facts in the same way, I feel that this would have a positive change.
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