Achterberg 1

Colin Achterberg

Professor Hughes

ENG 1201

7 April 2019

The Opioid Epidemic

“The opioid crisis began after numerous pharmaceutical companies developed and

marketed novel painkiller formulations in the 1990s. These drug manufacturers assured health

care officials and the general public that their new formulations were safe and abuse-resistant,

and physicians and other health care providers with prescriptive authority such as physician

assistants and nurse practitioners began to prescribe them to patients at increased rates” (Opioid

Crisis). Opioids were never meant to become a national epidemic. At the start of their time,

opioids were supposed to help people in pain. Even the companies making them had claimed that

they were no danger to the public. Now almost three decades since opioids were released to help,

they are now considered a national epidemic. This epidemic is ruining lives of many people. In

fact, most people know or have seen at least one person who has used opioids before. Opioids

are very wide spread and effecting the lives of children and adults all around the country, with

many doctors and physicians on pay roll to prescribe them, and the government having weak

regulations have caused this national epidemic.

At first the writing of prescriptions wasn’t a problem. Although as time went on, it

became noticeable that overdoses were going up year after year: “From 1999 through 2011,

overdose deaths from prescribed opioids tripled nationally, and while these numbers remained

relatively constant over the next 4 years, the number of overdose deaths from illicit narcotics—
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mostly heroin and fentanyl—tripled” (Lockwood 6). Since then, overdose rates have consistently

kept increasing. This has left many in disparity. In the early years people would take as many

pills as the doctor told them. Although, as the years go on, users have built a tolerance requiring

them to take more of the pills to get the same effect. If these long-term users use with a brand-

new user, the new user is likely to think that taking more will be better. They don’t realize that it

was a bad idea until they are not apart of this earth anymore. Even if awoken by Narcan, many

will be upset because “you took their high away.” These people don’t realize that if a paramedic

did not do that, they would not be alive to even say that statement. Just now, education is finally

getting better about addiction.

Now in the 21st century, the epidemic has blown up and it has taken the world until the

end of this century to finally realize the damage. Users are taking doses that are to large for

them: “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated that 115 people died each

day from opioid-related overdoses in 2017” (Opioid Crisis). That’s almost 42,000 people who

over dosed and died in 2017. That’s not including the many users who overdosed and luckily

were revived by EMT professionals. That’s 115 families that had to say goodbye to a loved one

every single day. The worst part is, some of these users could have been mothers to be. They

killed themselves and their unborn children. If they survived, the baby would be born already

addicted to opioids.

As a newborn baby, it is hoped that babies are healthy and ready to take on this new

world. For babies with drug addicted mothers, this is not the case. When drug dependent babies

are born, they must be gradually taken off the opioids. As the article “Babies Are Being Born

Addicted to Prescription Drugs” states, health officials must give drug dependent babies

morphine, which helps get symptoms under control. All though morphine has side effects,
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sometimes causing the new born to stop breathing. This causes hospitals to have constant

supervision over the addicted babies (Babies). These children have already had some of the most

difficult days of their life that they are ever going to have to face. These children will also be

more likely to develop substance addiction later in their life. Although not all children getting

addicted are newborns, many teenagers also decide to experiment with opioids and become

addicted.

As a teenager, your brain still is not completely developed. Researchers have said that the

human brain is does not completely develope until one’s mid-twenties. Most is of our brains are

developed in our teenage years except for one big key part: “The key brain part that's still

developing is the prefrontal cortex and it's the area you use in critical thinking, such as when you

weigh pros and cons before making a decision” ( Drugs and the Teen Brain). This leaves

teenagers for a much higher risk of addiction. Teenagers cannot always decide right from wrong

without the prefrontal cortex. The dangers of these drugs are not always clear. Especially

because not many teens are educating themselves about the topic. Teenagers just start using

because they enjoy it and think it does no harm.

Teens that use can cause changes in their brains. As “Drugs and the Teen Brain” claims,

synapses cause how one processes information. These synapses are a part of a person’s memory,

learning, and understanding of emotions. Drugs can cause issues with a teens memory, focus,

and their ability to think past problems (Drugs). These issues can last a lifetime, even if the teen

gets off the drugs before adulthood. These drugs can come into teens possessions from adults

around them. Although these drugs all started as a prescription for someone who was supposed

to need them. For profit, many prescribed patients sell them off instead of taking them to try and

better their lifestyles, destroying many others. Doctors and physicians started over prescribing
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drugs because they were put on a pay roll. Many didn’t even know the addictive nature of such

substances.

Pharma companies did not explain the addictive nature opioids bring with them. Purdue

Pharma has been under fire for miss leading the nation in pursuit of making a fortune: “On May

15, six states — Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas — sued

pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma, accusing it of contributing to the national opioid

epidemic” (McCutcheon). Companies alike are also under fire, and they are accused of

withholding how addictive opioids can become and did not flag large orders with the

government. They just kept sending more and more prescriptions helping the intensity of an

epidemic.

The sales of OxyContin have been said to be a major reason of the drug epidemic. This

drug was made after Oxycodone. As “Opioid Crisis” exclaims, Purdue Pharma had originally

told the world that OxyContin was tamperproof. Although it has been said that if you crush it up

to snort it, there is a release of a strong euphoric effect. The company is said to have known

about the addictive effect before the overdoses were reaching epidemic levels. Using aggressive

sales strategies, the company was said to go from making $48 million in 1996 to making over a

$1 billion in 2000 (Opioid Crisis). This is even more evidence in showing the unethical doings of

Purdue Pharma. More evidence about how they knew all these things could happen, yet still

aggressively marketed them to the public. Putting many on the verge of addiction themselves.

Even if someone had never seen an ad, if they went to the doctor’s office, they surely

heard about it. Doctors and physicians were being bribed: “Manufacturers also routinely offered

gifts to providers, which subsequent studies found had influenced health care providers'

prescription-writing tendencies” (Opioid Crisis). These health officials were in the pockets of
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their providers, trying to get commission on their prescriptions wrote. They did not even know

the addictive nature of the drugs. The dollar signs just popped up and the prescription slips

would be signed. They had prescribed drugs like OxyContin for minor injuries that could have

used a much weaker drug to treat the pain.

Health care providers prescribed many pills at rates higher and higher every year. That is

until something had to be done: “In 2006 American health care providers wrote 72.4 opioid

painkiller prescriptions per 100 people, a rate that increased annually by 4.1 percent from 2006

to 2008 and by 1.1 percent until 2012 (when it reached 81.3 per 100), then began a downward

trend, decreasing annually by 4.9 percent between 2012 and 201” (Opioid Crisis). There started

to be the sense of the epidemic and the rates are still alarming, although slowly on their way

down. The nation now was regretting allowing the pain killers on the streets.

In doing this, these companies have hurt the world. Nations must help these people, even

if they are users, because it would be unethical to not try and help them. Opioids have

contributed towards hurting the United States economy: “Opioids have taken a huge economic

toll, costing the country more than $1 trillion from 2001 through 2017 in lost wages, productivity

and tax revenue, and in extra spending on health care, social services, education and law

enforcement, according to Altarum, a health care research and consulting group in Ann Arbor,

Mich. The company estimates that opioids will cost another $500 billion by 2020 without

‘concerted and sustained action to address the crisis’” (McCutcheon). This nation is $20 trillion

in debt, meaning that this epidemic has caused for five percent of the total debt. It may not seem

like that much, although considering there are many more different expenses, this is a huge toll.

The amount is getting so high, the epidemic is now getting into the government’s cross hairs.
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The opioid crisis was made a national health emergency by the Trump Administration in

October of 2017. It took 17 years since the crisis started gaining mass amounts of problems for

this to be declared. The Overdose Prevention in States (OPIS) initiative has been a start to the

government stopping this epidemic: The OPIS uses numerous monitoring and reporting

techniques to identify areas at elevated risk for a high concentration of opioid overdoses,

promotes prescription drug monitoring programs, and monitors prescribing activities” (Opioid

Crisis). A stand is finally in the start. The government wants to stop the non-sense of overdoses.

Other actions have also been taken.

Looking at Figure 1, you can see with in the graph by the National Institute on Drug

Abuse. The northeast part of our nation is expected to see the highest amounts of substance

abuse. Relating this to just the Dayton area. Interstate 70 and Interstate 75 are a huge factor for

the north east. This is the hub of two of our nation’s main interstates. The west is the next area of

the nation with high use. Although the graph shows that the southeast part of the nation passed

the west and is much closer to the northeast now. As the epidemic goes on, the government is

faced with a problem: How to get this epidemic under control?

The United States Government has spent millions of dollars in the fight against this

national emergency. As the article “Drugs and Narcotics” exploits, over half of the early adults

(18-34) have used illegal drugs in their life. The law is made to punish any manufacturer of

these pills. There is now a five-group classification for drugs. There is a different series of

punishments for each group and groups are determined based on the medication’s ability (Drugs

and Narcotics). Being able to classify different drugs to each other was the first step in the crack

down. Officials must be able to recognize drugs with low risks and drugs with high risks. The
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penalty cannot be the same if you have aspirin or heroin. Although there are laws specifically

made to discourage trafficking.

Many traffickers do not use the products they are moving. They sell the opioids and see

the effects of their pills on the rest of the area. Stopping traffickers would make pills difficult for

street buyers to obtain them: “Under a general expansion of federal offenses that can invoke

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, the Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, Pub. L. No.

103-322, 108 Stat. 1796, imposes the death penalty for major drug trafficking” (Drugs and

Narcotics). Imposing the death penalty is to help discourage criminals in moving mass amounts

of these prescriptions onto the streets. The government is making them make a choice, they can

risk death and make money until they are caught and executed, or they can just not be involved

at all and not have to worry about being executed.

For certain first-time offenders meeting the requirements, they can get off major offenses

cooperating with government officials. This is the governments pursuit to get higher up the chain

of where the drugs come from. This law gives first-time offenders minimal sentencing: “Under

the Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act, Congress exempted certain first-time, non-violent

offenders from minimum sentencing. An exempted person must be a first-time offender with a

limited criminal history; must not have used violence or possessed a weapon during the offense;

could not have organized or supervised activities of others; and must provide truthful

information and evidence to the government during the offense” (Drugs and Narcotics). With

this law, offenders are given the opportunity to provide information incriminating others that the

government are having trouble obtaining evidence on. This leads to major bust and arrests.

Working up the ladder is a way to stop major suppliers ruining the supply for lots of street

dealers. There is also a zero-tolerance policy with real estate.

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When owning real estate, you have the right at anytime to evict drug using tenants. If

drug using tenants can not have a place to stay it makes it much harder for them to hide from law

enforcement. As “Drugs and Narcotics” writes, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act requires local public

housing agencies to add a clause in the standard release document that the agency may evict

tenants using or allowing use on or near their premises. Although some say that people such as

grandparents caring for grandchildren have been evicted unfairly because of zero-tolerance

(Drugs and Narcotics). That is a counterargument to the Anti-Drug Abuse Act because an elder

is being evicted when they were just trying to help their grandchild by taking them in. Now they

are homeless because the kid could not make a smart choice. George W. Bush also started a

group dedicated to helping drug problems.

George W. Bush saw the problem of drugs. He introduced the National Drug Control

Strategy: “The core principles include: (1) stopping drug use before it starts; (2) healing

American drug users; and (3) disrupting the drug market” (Drugs and Narcotics). This strategy

helped use go down. The first two years of this strategy use went down by 10 percent. After five

years the use had gone down by 25 percent. Working towards helping drug users, this strategy

was great for the nation.

Opioids are a national epidemic that have shook the entire nation affecting lives of

children and adults because doctors and physicians were on pay roll to prescribe them, making

the government tighten regulations in attempt to stop these doctors and physicians and bring the

number of users down. Nearly 115 people die daily from these pills. Action must be taken to

help this society. The epidemic must be stopped.

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(Figure 1) Graph showing suspected opioid abuse (National Institute on Drug Abuse).
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Works Cited

"Babies Are Being Born Addicted to Prescription Drugs." Prescription Drugs, edited by Sylvia

Engdahl, Greenhaven Press, 2014. Current Controversies. Opposing Viewpoints in

Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010532254/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid

=03c25872. Accessed 3 Mar. 2019.

"Drugs and Narcotics." Gale Encyclopedia of American Law, edited by Donna Batten, 3rd ed.,

vol. 4, Gale, 2010, pp. 28-35. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX1337701511/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xi

d=b7216906. Accessed 3 Mar. 2019.

"Drugs and the Teen Brain." New York Times Upfront, 19 Nov. 2018, p. 20+. Opposing

Viewpoints in Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A562867331/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid=

9af05ead. Accessed 3 Mar. 2019.

LOCKWOOD, CHARLES J. “Why Is There an Opioid Crisis? Like the Road to Hell, the Road

to the Opioid Crisis Was Paved with Good Intentions.” Contemporary OB/GYN, vol. 63,

no. 2, Feb. 2018, pp. 6–10. EBSCOhost,

sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&d

b=ccm&AN=127988098&site=eds-live.

McCutcheon, Chuck. "Opioid Addiction." CQ Researcher, 14 June 2018,

library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqr_ht_opioids_2018.
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National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Opioid Overdose Crisis.” NIDA, 22 Jan. 2019,

www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis.

"Opioid Crisis." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2018. Opposing Viewpoints in

Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/PC3010999232/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid

=62bbf27a. Accessed 3 Mar. 2019.