The Opioid Crisis in America Part 3

Wow, there are so many adverse effects to using opioids, from OxyContin, Percocet, and heroin, to name a few. To begin with, the states with the most significant numbers of opioid abusers are California, New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey (Doweiko, 2015). But we know that all of North America is in an opioid crisis as we speak. Sadly, within the last 20 years, nearly 500,000 people have succumbed to opioid overdoses. Many who are addicted do not think they can live to reach 30 years old or even 40 years old.

Those who are addicted do not want to live the way they do. It’s a sickness and a disease. Opioids do affect the brain of the user by depressing the breathing of an individual, affecting the blood pressure and their ability to be alert at times. When someone overdoses on an opioid or any drug for that matter, it appears that part of the brain function that tells the lungs to breathe turns off. Many have overdosed and came close to death but did not die. Another adverse effect of substance abuse and dependency may lead to a depressive state of mind, and the individual can be diagnosed with a co-occurring disorder.

Are You Ready to Change?

Drug abuse, in general, affects so many aspects of life, from the individual to the family, employment, finances, health care, and the criminal system. It seems as though the “war on drugs” in the past has targeted ethnic minorities and people experiencing poverty. So, it seemed that law enforcement authorities and local governments as a whole viewed drug addiction as a crime, especially in urban communities. When the crack epidemic hit metropolitan cities, many law enforcement communities may have viewed it as a criminal act instead of an addiction that needed to be treated initially. And to be fair, it was a criminal act to those who sold and to those who used it because crack was something new to the seen.

Nonetheless, when the opioid addiction came on the scene in the 21^st century, it was not so much considered a criminal act as crack, but more of an illness that needed to be addressed. With the crack epidemic, again, mainly targeted the poor and African American communities, while drugs such as OxyContin, Percocet, and other pills targeted the poor and primarily white suburban culture in well-to-do communities and rural areas. So, the deficiency of the ability to talk about African American overdose deaths in the national opioid discourse continues to marginalize black people and seems consistent with a history of framing the addictions of people of color as deserving of criminal punishment rather than worthy of medical treatment (James, K. et al., 2018).

For more information for yourself, a friend or a family member please visit https://na.org/

References:

Doweiko, H. E. (2015). Concepts of chemical dependency (9th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.

James, K., & Jordan, A. (2018). The opioid crisis in black communities. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 46(2), 404-421.