Thoughts on the Opioid Crisis - Blog Reflection One

Opioids are extremely dangerous due to how addictive they are. Too many times we have heard in the news of someone overdosing. Some are legal and some are not but the real issue is when consumers take these drugs when they are not prescribed to them. Opioids do have beneficial qualities: they will calm the pain after surgeries and in cancer treatments. These are opioids such as Oxycotin, Vicodin, and Morphine telling your brain to not feel pain. Due to this possibly attractive quality, people become addicted with some faster than others since there is no set amount of time to become addicted. Many teenagers have even had a taste of the drug due to wisdom teeth surgery.

I think two of the reasons why opioids have become a crisis is due to overprescribing from

doctors and their cunning appearance. Doctors often overprescribe the drug because it is hard to turn away a patient in pain. Often, this pain comes from the opioid addiction creating a vicious cycle of harm. There is no paraphernalia such as needles or smoking equipment associated with the drug making it appear as less harmful and more benevolent. It’s as simple as a pill making it comparable to ibuprofen in someone’s mind.

A family friend of mine, Kim Hanning, had a hard and intense battle with cancer. In her last month, a bed was set up in the living room and the nurses provided 24-hour care in their home. Cooper, her husband, would tell me how many hardcore drugs they had to give Kim. She was in SO much pain and after her passing a week ago, Cooper told me how the nurses cleaned the space. He watched them destroy the leftover opioid pain medication like morphine. This pain relieving drug was necessary. In this case, the nurses did their job taking away the leftover opioids. Thus, Cooper and the kids could not go on to sell it or get addicted themselves as they cope with their grief.

The opioid crisis is nationwide. Congress is trying to do their part by cracking down on shipments of illegal opioids through mail as of September 2018. President Trump has also made public statements drawing attention to the epidemic. Steps are being made which is good, but there is a lot of word to be done.