Opioid Addiction: A Crisis Overlooked
On Friday September 7, Malcolm James McCormick, more commonly known as Mac Miller, was found dead in his home of an apparent drug overdose. The 26-year-old rapper and song writer battled with addiction for years. In his song, “Perfect Circle/God Speed”, the artist wrote about his struggle with addiction as he rapped “everybody says I need rehab . . . they don’t want me to OD and have to talk to my mother.”
Miller was aware that he was on a dark path. He was struggling with his own demons, as he had fallen victim to addiction. He knew that he needed treatment for his addiction but was failed by treatment facilities as he eventually lost his life, suffering a similar fate like millions of other Americans. The publicity of Miller’s death has become an example to society that addiction cannot only be characterized to a demographic of people. Addiction does not target people of a specific race or socioeconomic group. The issue is much broader.
As the opioid epidemic spans throughout the United States, millions of lives are continuously being placed at risk. Opioid abuse has become the leading cause of death in people under the age of 50, which is why educational and treatment facilities should be implemented in schools and communities to focus on younger populations.
Although the issue seems distant, the urgency of the problem is close to home. Ohio has been deemed “ground zero” for the rapidly expanding opioid epidemic. Opioid addiction has become a nationwide problem across the United States, but Ohio has been described as the “epicenter of the epidemic”. An article published by Mercy Health Hospital named Ohio the “second leading state for overdose deaths”.
According to an article in the Springfield News-Sun, “Clark County sees spike in opioid deaths in 2017,” there have been 4,854 accidental drug overdoses in Ohio within the last year [2017], about an 800 person increase from 2016 and the rates are only continuing to rise.
In response to the increasing opioid statistics, the House Bill 367-Opioid Abuse Prevention was established to require the Governor's Cabinet Opiate Action Team to make recommendations for instruction in prescription opioid abuse prevention. The bill instituted that the board of election of local school districts select a health curriculum that explains the dangers of prescription opioid abuse. A program was established based on the national data provided by the National Institute of Drug Addiction, (NIDA) and the Center for Disease Control, (CDC) concerning prescription opioid abuse and heroin abuse, that is taught to all students in primary and secondary schools.
The program created runs from kindergarten through twelfth grade with an age-appropriate education about the consequences of opioid abuse. It teaches children in kindergarten through third grade “differences among foods, poisons, medicines and drugs; personal responsibility for one’s actions;” and ends in twelfth grade by teaching students how to recognize symptoms of a drug overdose.
The efforts to help limit the rates of addiction have been funded through governmental functions, however, the statistics fail to reflect the policies. In 2015, the American Society of Addiction Medicine announced that opioid addiction was the leading cause of accidental death in the US, with 52,404 lethal drug overdoses. Unfortunately, this issue is stemming from younger generations, specifically high school students.
An article by the Recovery Village, found that nearly 44% of high school students know a classmate who sells drugs, with 24% knowing someone who sells prescription opioids. Prescription opioids are often a gateway drug towards abuse of other narcotics drugs such as heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine as a cheaper alternative to the prescription medication. The National Institutes of Health reported that 80% of people who use heroin supposedly abused prescription opioids prior to using heroin. Therefore, the opioid epidemic is often perceived as additionally fueling the other societal issues such as heroin and fentanyl abuse.
Despite these statistics, Governor John Kasich stated at a Statehouse conference last Thursday on September 20th, that he sees encouraging signs among the grim statistics – but adds there is little else for state officials to do in order to combat the opioid problem, according to TimesReporter.
Critics have faulted Kasich claiming that the state needs to fund more treatment facilities and educational programs. The issue is that there needs to be more government funding in preventing opioid addiction beginning with more educational programs directed towards the youth. An increased focus on how to cope with stress and mental health, which are both often factors in opioid abuse would help in preventative measures against the opioid crisis. The implementation of House Bill-367 has been a start in the encouragement of new policies and change, but we have yet to see the results.
In spite of the death and addiction rates, Kasich stated that “There is a perception — somehow this problem of drug abuse in our state is raging out of control. That is simply not true. We are beginning to win a number of the battles on the war on drug abuse.”
How can we be winning the battles on drug abuse when sources such as The Washington Post have recorded that one hundred Americans die every day from drug overdoses? The facts are not correlating with statements from government officials. Data from the Department of Health found that Ohio’s surge in death rates was largely related to fentanyl and that synthetic opioids accounted for nearly three-fourths of the fatal overdoses in 2017, a 46% increase from 2016. The rates are increasing but being blatantly ignored as officials are lost for solutions to the problem facing Americans.
The issue has been continuously growing and people are left hopeless and without anywhere to turn. If government officials are saying there is nothing else to be done, then how can the problem be resolved? To combat the problem that has impacted the lives of millions of Americans, we need to focus our efforts and funds towards the people who are the target population of the opioid epidemic: younger generations.
An increased understanding in the harmfulness of abusing prescription medications and a greater awareness for mental health issues would be a good place to start. In a study conducted by StatNews, from 2011 to 2013, it found that people with mood disorders were at an increased risk of abusing opioids, and yet they received many more prescriptions than the general population. The study analyzed that 51% of all people who are prescribed opioids suffer from anxiety, depression, and the inability to manage stress, contributing to the possibility of addiction.
Governmental funding should begin in schools and carry on throughout treatment facilities for addiction. Money should be directed towards schools because the rates of mental illness have been increasing. The Mental Health Foundation reported that 70% of all children and adolescents experiencing mental health issues but have not received professional intervention. If we focus on treating the issues contributing to addiction such as stress, anxiety, and depression, then we will see a decrease in the rates of opioid addiction. The problem is not an illusion, the facts clearly represents the severity of the epidemic that is striking our country, and our homes.