The Junior Research Paper
Junior year every student has to write a research report on a current topic that they find interesting. I chose the opioid epidemic and dove deep into the consequences this epidemic has on our society and the potential solutions.
The Solution to the Opioid Crisis
Opioid overdose is the top reason why people under 50 die. Opioids, very addictive analgesic drugs, were traditionally used to treat severe pain for major surgeries, terminal cancer patients, car accidents, etc. However, doctors felt overwhelmed with the amount of chronic and emotional pain that many Americans felt. For this reason, many doctors had no idea how to deal with the complex pain problems that their patients had so the quick response was to give their patients pills. Regardless of the severity of their pain people were given opioids in way too big amounts and they became addicted. The opioid crisis costs millions and millions of dollars each year because of healthcare, hospital bills, and other medical related costs. Something needs to be done about this horrible epidemic. Even though millions of people suffer from opioid addiction, only 1 out of 10 of them actually get treatment. This is because of American society’s taboo relationship with opioids as well as the severe under exaggeration that many doctors and pharmaceutical companies use to advertise these prescription painkillers. The U.S needs to enact policies to stem opioid addiction because of the terrible effects it has on our society.
Opioids first came to the U.S with the Chinese working on the railroads during the 1800’s and quickly became popular. The Chinese smoked opiates as a past time and a way to relieve stress. When they came to the U.S, many railroad workers and other Americans experimented with opioids and liked their effects. However, people began seriously using opioids for physical and emotional pain during and after the Civil War. This was the beginning of Americans abusing opioids for all types of pain whether justifiable or not. During the early 1900s, not much was known about these poppy derivatives. People used drugs such as heroin like cough suppressants and headache medicine. They were effective painkillers so people used them without thinking about the consequences. During “1914, the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act imposed a tax on the making, importing or selling of any derivative of opium or coca leaves” (Treatment For Addiction). This reduced the number of opioids found in the U.S but not by very much. By the 1920s, doctors were aware of the highly addictive nature of opioids and tried to avoid treating patients with them. Then heroin became illegal in 1924. However, World War II was a turning point for physicians treating pain as doctors worked to treat severely mentally and physically injured soldiers. Anesthesiologists opened "nerve block clinics" in the 1950s and 1960s to manage pain “without having to resort to surgery”. Although this did increase the survival rate of the soldiers from the war, it also caused an upsurge in opioid addiction. These veterans continued using the opioids even after their surgeries and physical pain ended. However bad that opioid epidemic was, it’s not even close to comparing to the current opioid crisis where “nearly 175 Americans lose their lives everyday due to opioid related deaths” (CityLab).
In the year 2012, “there were 793 million doses of opioids prescribed in Ohio, enough to supply every man, woman, and child, with 68 pills each.” This means that almost 20% of the state’s population was prescribed an opioid in 2016. Ohio lead and continues to lead the nation in overdose deaths (Reuters). However, other states are also experiencing gigantic and unnatural numbers of opioid related deaths. These numbers have only continued to rise over the years and are now reaching a breaking point. Opioids have begun to be created illegally and sold on the streets. These illicit opioids are most often more harmful and potent than the drugs created by the pharma companies. “Another opioid alternative is fentanyl which is a power anesthetic, it is 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine” and used by patients to relieve severe chronic pain. It used to be used for severe pain but “over the past few years... it has been manufactured illicitly and sold on the streets.” (The Hill) The opioid abuse epidemic started years ago, but it needs to be stopped now.
The opioid epidemic costs the U.S many lives and costs our economy billions and billions of dollars a year. These huge expenses come from ambulance costs, emergency room visits, and the use of naloxone which is a drug used to reverse and halt the effects of an opioid overdose. In 2001 the nation’s annual cost from the opioid crisis was 29.1 billion dollars and it more than doubled to 60.9 billion dollars in 2011 and hit a whopping 115 billion in 2017. (The Hill) The cost has continued to rise over the years and won’t stop rising until we can find a comprehensive and sustainable solution to the epidemic. As part of the effort to stop the opioid epidemic, Congress has proposed spending $6 billion over the next two years to help address the national crisis. As well as Congress proposing change, President Trump is proposing $13 billion in new spending on preventing the spread of opioids. Although this money is an additional cost onto the already extremely expensive epidemic, this money is not being used to just postpone the problem and solve the immediate but instead is going to be put towards a sustainable solution.
Although President Trump recently announced that the opioid epidemic is a “national emergency”, nothing has been done to fix it yet. Calling it a national emergency is a productive step to increasing public awareness, but it’s only the first step to fully reaching the public’s understanding. Sustainable changes needs to occur, and they need to occur now. The homicide rates in many big cities such as St. Louis and Baltimore have continued to rise with the opioid epidemic. “On a national scale, [the opioid epidemic] appears to be showing signs of driving violence” and “the expansion of illicit drug markets brought about by the heroin and synthetic opioid epidemic” are causing deaths everyday in these big cities. “The timing of the increase of drug arrests coincides with the national rise in homicides”, noted a study published in November by the U.S. Justice Department-affiliated National Institute for Justice. (Justice Department) And drug-related killings “accounted for 22% of the total increase of homicides nationally for which police determined a motive,” the analysis said (Justice Department). An example of a tragic situation involving opioid addiction involved “Ben Ledbetter, 29, an Air Force veteran who was in Fountain Park looking to score heroin when he was gunned down in June.” Fights over opioids and heroin have only continued to increase, causing deaths like this to occur all too frequently. “Ledbetter developed an opioid addiction” after injuring his back while enlisted and was put on major prescription painkillers for months and months at a time. He became addicted to these painkillers that his doctor too generously doled out to him. “He had completed a six-month drug rehabilitation in April, but he was unable to stay sober, his sister Tammi Ledbetter said.” (USA Today) Stories like Ben’s are the reason why people need to stop ignoring the opioid crisis and we need to find a solution.
The opioid crisis has several causes. The first reason is economic decline. The rise in opioid deaths in hard-hit places in Appalachia and the Rust Belt suggests a close connection with the despair wrought by economic decline. And it is true that the counties that experienced the most dramatic economic decline between 1999 and 2015 also saw the largest increases in opioid deaths (The Conservation). This shows a correlation between financial struggles and opioid addiction. Just like after the Civil War, people are using opioids to combat mental and emotional problems rather than physical.
However, the main reason why the opioid epidemic is so prevalent in today’s society is the pharmaceutical companies falsely advertising about the addictiveness of their drugs. The pharmaceutical companies, who for their own gain, convinced doctors and health care professionals that opioids weren’t as addicting and should be used for small pain. They failed to consider how it would affect the people of America. The pharmaceutical companies are the hidden villains of the opioid crisis. The increase in the popularity of opioid prescription was fueled by a multifaceted campaign caused by pharmaceutical companies.” The doctors were told by their doctoral societies, their hospitals and even from state medical boards that patients were in pain needlessly because of an overblown fear of addiction.” So they created a campaign that “minimized opioid risks and exaggerated the benefits of using opioids over a long time for chronic pain.” (The Conservation). These selfish pharmaceutical companies only thought about their own gain instead of how addictive these painkillers were, causing the circulation of millions upon millions of pills.
Finding a solution to solve the entire opioid crisis is not an easy task. First, you have to ask yourself who the responsible party is and then you have to decide how action should best be taken. In many cases, the pharmaceutical companies are being blamed for the opioid crisis. They have in the last year alone reported thousands of suspicious drug orders. (Reuters) These orders went through the “pharmaceutical companies with no second glances or concerns.” This has caused hundreds of lawsuits by states, counties and cities that accused drugmakers of pushing addictive painkillers through deceptive marketing and wholesale distributors of failing to report suspicious drug orders.
On Monday, February 26th the state of Ohio sued four large pharmaceutical companies for their role in the opioid crisis.” (Reuters) This is important, because the companies marketed their drugs as safe and effective for treating pain even though the evidence clearly showed that particularly for chronic pain the risks outweighed the benefits. The popular pharmaceutical company “Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyCotin paid more than $600 million in fines for their misleading marketing claims”(Reuters). However satisfying it is to punish the minds behind the opioid crisis the people also need to be part of the solution. Millions of people nationwide are addicted to opioids and are not receiving treatment. Treatment needs to be possible and accessible for everyone. According to Dr. Andrew Kolodny, co-director of the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at Brandeis University, in order to solve the opioid epidemic, “we have to prevent more people from becoming addicted,” and “this requires much more cautious prescribing.” For the millions already suffering from addiction, “we have to ensure that effective outpatient treatment is easier to access than prescription opioids, heroin or fentanyl.” “In 2016, more than 11 million Americans abused prescription opioids, nearly 1 million used heroin, and 2.1 million had an opioid use disorder from prescription opioids or heroin.” If all those addicted to opioids could be treated, the cost would run high but it’s a bill that drugmakers should pay. “To recover from the opioid epidemic, the nation must change the way it looks at opioids”, said former FDA Commissioner Dr. David Kessler. “In acute pain, they can be vital. Outside of that and outside of cancer pain, they are deadly,” he said. “We have to recognize that.” (Clarion Ledger) Rehab needs to stop being thought of in a negative connotation and instead thought of as a sometimes necessary solution to a very common problem. Check ins needs to be common after the rehabilitation period to make sure people haven’t slipped off the wagon. We need to stop ignoring this problem and actually take action to completely address the opioid addiction crisis.
Some people may argue that it is important to treat people’s pain and not just make them live a life of pain because of the fear of addiction. If these pharmaceutical companies were giving out pain medication to people that normally would get shoved under the carpet with medications that weren’t strong enough to solve their pain, then what’s the issue? The issue is that addiction is a harmful thing and when someone begins to live their life waiting to take the next pill then they have an unhealthy addiction. Opioid addiction poses a much bigger danger than chronic pain. Opioid addiction takes hundreds of lives every single day. The fear of opioid addiction is a very justified one. There is no doubt that people with chronic pain suffer and need a solution but prescription painkillers like OxyCotin are simply not the answer. Instead, research is being done about the cellular workings of opioids and a new solution may be available which will improve pain relief without the negative side effect of addiction. This would “trigger one receptor and block another.” Currently work is being done at the University of Minnesota where they are administering this drug to mice and testing it’s effectiveness. It was found that “the MDAN drug proved 50 times more effective than morphine in blocking pain” as well and the “mice didn’t develop any reliance upon this drug”. This shows a hope new solution to the opioid crisis and treating pain in general. (The Scientific American)
Opioid addiction is a very serious issue gripping our society. Steps need to be taken to reduce the effects of this crisis on America. Opioid addiction costs thousands and thousands of lives every single year and yet minimal work is being done to solve this crisis. The economic consequences of this epidemic have been tremendous and the only way to stop this huge economic toll is to invest money, time, and research into stopping the stigma of opioid addiction and working to end addiction. Pharmaceutical companies have tricked and lied themselves into a national crisis and now it’s their job to fix the issue they created. The people that have been affected by this crisis, those addicted, also need to be part of the solution. The opioid crisis needs to be recognized nationally and solved before more lives are lost.
Lopez, German. “The Opioid Epidemic, Explained.” Vox, Vox, 3 Aug. 2017.
In this article Lopez describes how the opioid crisis came to be and the tremendous that the opioid companies had in causing the crisis.
I used this source to show the supporting details on pharmaceutical companies role in the opioid epidemic.
Raymond, Nate, and Matthew Lewis. “Ohio Accuses Drug Distributors of Helping Fuel Opioid Epidemic.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 26 Feb. 2018.
In this article Raymond explains why Ohio sued four of the major pharmaceutical companies because of the fact that they overlooked the obviously illegal amount of opioids flowing into Ohio.
I used this source because it shows the deceptiveness that these companies used when trying to make huge profit off of overprescription.
Mitchell, Jerry. “With 175 Americans Dying a Day, What Are the Solutions to the Opioid Epidemic?” The Clarion Ledger, The Clarion-Ledger, 2 Feb. 2018.
In this article Jerry Mitchell explains the possible solutions to controlling and solving the opioid crisis, he says that calling it a crisis and not doing anything about is no longer working.
I used this source because I thought it would be a really interesting and conclusive detail in my essay.
Hellmann, Jessie. “What Caused The Opioid Crisis?” The Hill, 3 Mar. 2018.
In this article Hellmann explains how the pharmaceutical companies began encouraging a much more aggressive treatment for those with chronic pain.
I used this article because it supports my point that the opioid crisis was caused by the pharmaceutical companies overprescribing addictive pain medications.
Hutchings, Donald. Methadone, Treatment for Addiction. Chelsea House, 1992.
In this book, Hutchings explains how the Chinese really influenced the use of opioids here in America and introduced them.
I used this book because I thought it would be cool to provide some history on the use of opioids throughout time.
Allen, Greg. “Cost Of U.S. Opioid Epidemic Since 2001 Is $1 Trillion And Climbing.” NPR, NPR, 13 Feb. 2018.
Allen explains the economic consequences of the opioid crisis.
I used this article because it shows how huge the opioid crisis has become and how it affected our society.
Kolodny Co-Director of Opioid Policy Research, Brandeis University, Andrew. “The Opioid Epidemic in 6 Charts.” The Conversation, 12 Feb. 2018.
In this article, the opioid crisis and the pharmaceutical companies role in it is explained.
I used this article because it added more supporting details to my claim.
Mangan, Dan. “Economic Cost of the Opioid Crisis: 1 Trillion and Growing Faster.” CNBC, 13 Feb. 2017.
In this article, Dan Mangan explains the opioid crisis and how expensive it is for our society.
I used this article because it provides really good supporting details on the economic consequences of the opioid crisis.
Semuels, Alana. “Are Pharmaceutical Companies to Blame for the Opioid Epidemic?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 2 June 2017.
In this article Semuels explains how the pharmaceutical companies being sued is like the big tobacco companies were sued when the anti-smoking movement erupted.
I used this article to show synthesis between the smoking crisis and the opioid crisis.
Madhani, Aamer. “Opioids Are Adding a Dangerous Wrinkle to Violent Cities.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 25 Jan. 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/01/25/murder-opioid-epidemic-violence-st-louis/1065533001/.
In this article Madhani shows us the horrible consequences the opioid epidemic has caused and the young lives it has stolen.
Opioid overdose is the top reason why people under 50 die. Opioids, very addictive analgesic drugs, were traditionally used to treat severe pain for major surgeries, terminal cancer patients, car accidents, etc. However, doctors felt overwhelmed with the amount of chronic and emotional pain that many Americans felt. For this reason, many doctors had no idea how to deal with the complex pain problems that their patients had so the quick response was to give their patients pills. Regardless of the severity of their pain people were given opioids in way too big amounts and they became addicted. The opioid crisis costs millions and millions of dollars each year because of healthcare, hospital bills, and other medical related costs. Something needs to be done about this horrible epidemic. Even though millions of people suffer from opioid addiction, only 1 out of 10 of them actually get treatment. This is because of American society’s taboo relationship with opioids as well as the severe under exaggeration that many doctors and pharmaceutical companies use to advertise these prescription painkillers. The U.S needs to enact policies to stem opioid addiction because of the terrible effects it has on our society.
Opioids first came to the U.S with the Chinese working on the railroads during the 1800’s and quickly became popular. The Chinese smoked opiates as a past time and a way to relieve stress. When they came to the U.S, many railroad workers and other Americans experimented with opioids and liked their effects. However, people began seriously using opioids for physical and emotional pain during and after the Civil War. This was the beginning of Americans abusing opioids for all types of pain whether justifiable or not. During the early 1900s, not much was known about these poppy derivatives. People used drugs such as heroin like cough suppressants and headache medicine. They were effective painkillers so people used them without thinking about the consequences. During “1914, the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act imposed a tax on the making, importing or selling of any derivative of opium or coca leaves” (Treatment For Addiction). This reduced the number of opioids found in the U.S but not by very much. By the 1920s, doctors were aware of the highly addictive nature of opioids and tried to avoid treating patients with them. Then heroin became illegal in 1924. However, World War II was a turning point for physicians treating pain as doctors worked to treat severely mentally and physically injured soldiers. Anesthesiologists opened "nerve block clinics" in the 1950s and 1960s to manage pain “without having to resort to surgery”. Although this did increase the survival rate of the soldiers from the war, it also caused an upsurge in opioid addiction. These veterans continued using the opioids even after their surgeries and physical pain ended. However bad that opioid epidemic was, it’s not even close to comparing to the current opioid crisis where “nearly 175 Americans lose their lives everyday due to opioid related deaths” (CityLab).
In the year 2012, “there were 793 million doses of opioids prescribed in Ohio, enough to supply every man, woman, and child, with 68 pills each.” This means that almost 20% of the state’s population was prescribed an opioid in 2016. Ohio lead and continues to lead the nation in overdose deaths (Reuters). However, other states are also experiencing gigantic and unnatural numbers of opioid related deaths. These numbers have only continued to rise over the years and are now reaching a breaking point. Opioids have begun to be created illegally and sold on the streets. These illicit opioids are most often more harmful and potent than the drugs created by the pharma companies. “Another opioid alternative is fentanyl which is a power anesthetic, it is 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine” and used by patients to relieve severe chronic pain. It used to be used for severe pain but “over the past few years... it has been manufactured illicitly and sold on the streets.” (The Hill) The opioid abuse epidemic started years ago, but it needs to be stopped now.
The opioid epidemic costs the U.S many lives and costs our economy billions and billions of dollars a year. These huge expenses come from ambulance costs, emergency room visits, and the use of naloxone which is a drug used to reverse and halt the effects of an opioid overdose. In 2001 the nation’s annual cost from the opioid crisis was 29.1 billion dollars and it more than doubled to 60.9 billion dollars in 2011 and hit a whopping 115 billion in 2017. (The Hill) The cost has continued to rise over the years and won’t stop rising until we can find a comprehensive and sustainable solution to the epidemic. As part of the effort to stop the opioid epidemic, Congress has proposed spending $6 billion over the next two years to help address the national crisis. As well as Congress proposing change, President Trump is proposing $13 billion in new spending on preventing the spread of opioids. Although this money is an additional cost onto the already extremely expensive epidemic, this money is not being used to just postpone the problem and solve the immediate but instead is going to be put towards a sustainable solution.
Although President Trump recently announced that the opioid epidemic is a “national emergency”, nothing has been done to fix it yet. Calling it a national emergency is a productive step to increasing public awareness, but it’s only the first step to fully reaching the public’s understanding. Sustainable changes needs to occur, and they need to occur now. The homicide rates in many big cities such as St. Louis and Baltimore have continued to rise with the opioid epidemic. “On a national scale, [the opioid epidemic] appears to be showing signs of driving violence” and “the expansion of illicit drug markets brought about by the heroin and synthetic opioid epidemic” are causing deaths everyday in these big cities. “The timing of the increase of drug arrests coincides with the national rise in homicides”, noted a study published in November by the U.S. Justice Department-affiliated National Institute for Justice. (Justice Department) And drug-related killings “accounted for 22% of the total increase of homicides nationally for which police determined a motive,” the analysis said (Justice Department). An example of a tragic situation involving opioid addiction involved “Ben Ledbetter, 29, an Air Force veteran who was in Fountain Park looking to score heroin when he was gunned down in June.” Fights over opioids and heroin have only continued to increase, causing deaths like this to occur all too frequently. “Ledbetter developed an opioid addiction” after injuring his back while enlisted and was put on major prescription painkillers for months and months at a time. He became addicted to these painkillers that his doctor too generously doled out to him. “He had completed a six-month drug rehabilitation in April, but he was unable to stay sober, his sister Tammi Ledbetter said.” (USA Today) Stories like Ben’s are the reason why people need to stop ignoring the opioid crisis and we need to find a solution.
The opioid crisis has several causes. The first reason is economic decline. The rise in opioid deaths in hard-hit places in Appalachia and the Rust Belt suggests a close connection with the despair wrought by economic decline. And it is true that the counties that experienced the most dramatic economic decline between 1999 and 2015 also saw the largest increases in opioid deaths (The Conservation). This shows a correlation between financial struggles and opioid addiction. Just like after the Civil War, people are using opioids to combat mental and emotional problems rather than physical.
However, the main reason why the opioid epidemic is so prevalent in today’s society is the pharmaceutical companies falsely advertising about the addictiveness of their drugs. The pharmaceutical companies, who for their own gain, convinced doctors and health care professionals that opioids weren’t as addicting and should be used for small pain. They failed to consider how it would affect the people of America. The pharmaceutical companies are the hidden villains of the opioid crisis. The increase in the popularity of opioid prescription was fueled by a multifaceted campaign caused by pharmaceutical companies.” The doctors were told by their doctoral societies, their hospitals and even from state medical boards that patients were in pain needlessly because of an overblown fear of addiction.” So they created a campaign that “minimized opioid risks and exaggerated the benefits of using opioids over a long time for chronic pain.” (The Conservation). These selfish pharmaceutical companies only thought about their own gain instead of how addictive these painkillers were, causing the circulation of millions upon millions of pills.
Finding a solution to solve the entire opioid crisis is not an easy task. First, you have to ask yourself who the responsible party is and then you have to decide how action should best be taken. In many cases, the pharmaceutical companies are being blamed for the opioid crisis. They have in the last year alone reported thousands of suspicious drug orders. (Reuters) These orders went through the “pharmaceutical companies with no second glances or concerns.” This has caused hundreds of lawsuits by states, counties and cities that accused drugmakers of pushing addictive painkillers through deceptive marketing and wholesale distributors of failing to report suspicious drug orders.
On Monday, February 26th the state of Ohio sued four large pharmaceutical companies for their role in the opioid crisis.” (Reuters) This is important, because the companies marketed their drugs as safe and effective for treating pain even though the evidence clearly showed that particularly for chronic pain the risks outweighed the benefits. The popular pharmaceutical company “Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyCotin paid more than $600 million in fines for their misleading marketing claims”(Reuters). However satisfying it is to punish the minds behind the opioid crisis the people also need to be part of the solution. Millions of people nationwide are addicted to opioids and are not receiving treatment. Treatment needs to be possible and accessible for everyone. According to Dr. Andrew Kolodny, co-director of the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at Brandeis University, in order to solve the opioid epidemic, “we have to prevent more people from becoming addicted,” and “this requires much more cautious prescribing.” For the millions already suffering from addiction, “we have to ensure that effective outpatient treatment is easier to access than prescription opioids, heroin or fentanyl.” “In 2016, more than 11 million Americans abused prescription opioids, nearly 1 million used heroin, and 2.1 million had an opioid use disorder from prescription opioids or heroin.” If all those addicted to opioids could be treated, the cost would run high but it’s a bill that drugmakers should pay. “To recover from the opioid epidemic, the nation must change the way it looks at opioids”, said former FDA Commissioner Dr. David Kessler. “In acute pain, they can be vital. Outside of that and outside of cancer pain, they are deadly,” he said. “We have to recognize that.” (Clarion Ledger) Rehab needs to stop being thought of in a negative connotation and instead thought of as a sometimes necessary solution to a very common problem. Check ins needs to be common after the rehabilitation period to make sure people haven’t slipped off the wagon. We need to stop ignoring this problem and actually take action to completely address the opioid addiction crisis.
Some people may argue that it is important to treat people’s pain and not just make them live a life of pain because of the fear of addiction. If these pharmaceutical companies were giving out pain medication to people that normally would get shoved under the carpet with medications that weren’t strong enough to solve their pain, then what’s the issue? The issue is that addiction is a harmful thing and when someone begins to live their life waiting to take the next pill then they have an unhealthy addiction. Opioid addiction poses a much bigger danger than chronic pain. Opioid addiction takes hundreds of lives every single day. The fear of opioid addiction is a very justified one. There is no doubt that people with chronic pain suffer and need a solution but prescription painkillers like OxyCotin are simply not the answer. Instead, research is being done about the cellular workings of opioids and a new solution may be available which will improve pain relief without the negative side effect of addiction. This would “trigger one receptor and block another.” Currently work is being done at the University of Minnesota where they are administering this drug to mice and testing it’s effectiveness. It was found that “the MDAN drug proved 50 times more effective than morphine in blocking pain” as well and the “mice didn’t develop any reliance upon this drug”. This shows a hope new solution to the opioid crisis and treating pain in general. (The Scientific American)
Opioid addiction is a very serious issue gripping our society. Steps need to be taken to reduce the effects of this crisis on America. Opioid addiction costs thousands and thousands of lives every single year and yet minimal work is being done to solve this crisis. The economic consequences of this epidemic have been tremendous and the only way to stop this huge economic toll is to invest money, time, and research into stopping the stigma of opioid addiction and working to end addiction. Pharmaceutical companies have tricked and lied themselves into a national crisis and now it’s their job to fix the issue they created. The people that have been affected by this crisis, those addicted, also need to be part of the solution. The opioid crisis needs to be recognized nationally and solved before more lives are lost.
Lopez, German. “The Opioid Epidemic, Explained.” Vox, Vox, 3 Aug. 2017.
In this article Lopez describes how the opioid crisis came to be and the tremendous that the opioid companies had in causing the crisis.
I used this source to show the supporting details on pharmaceutical companies role in the opioid epidemic.
Raymond, Nate, and Matthew Lewis. “Ohio Accuses Drug Distributors of Helping Fuel Opioid Epidemic.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 26 Feb. 2018.
In this article Raymond explains why Ohio sued four of the major pharmaceutical companies because of the fact that they overlooked the obviously illegal amount of opioids flowing into Ohio.
I used this source because it shows the deceptiveness that these companies used when trying to make huge profit off of overprescription.
Mitchell, Jerry. “With 175 Americans Dying a Day, What Are the Solutions to the Opioid Epidemic?” The Clarion Ledger, The Clarion-Ledger, 2 Feb. 2018.
In this article Jerry Mitchell explains the possible solutions to controlling and solving the opioid crisis, he says that calling it a crisis and not doing anything about is no longer working.
I used this source because I thought it would be a really interesting and conclusive detail in my essay.
Hellmann, Jessie. “What Caused The Opioid Crisis?” The Hill, 3 Mar. 2018.
In this article Hellmann explains how the pharmaceutical companies began encouraging a much more aggressive treatment for those with chronic pain.
I used this article because it supports my point that the opioid crisis was caused by the pharmaceutical companies overprescribing addictive pain medications.
Hutchings, Donald. Methadone, Treatment for Addiction. Chelsea House, 1992.
In this book, Hutchings explains how the Chinese really influenced the use of opioids here in America and introduced them.
I used this book because I thought it would be cool to provide some history on the use of opioids throughout time.
Allen, Greg. “Cost Of U.S. Opioid Epidemic Since 2001 Is $1 Trillion And Climbing.” NPR, NPR, 13 Feb. 2018.
Allen explains the economic consequences of the opioid crisis.
I used this article because it shows how huge the opioid crisis has become and how it affected our society.
Kolodny Co-Director of Opioid Policy Research, Brandeis University, Andrew. “The Opioid Epidemic in 6 Charts.” The Conversation, 12 Feb. 2018.
In this article, the opioid crisis and the pharmaceutical companies role in it is explained.
I used this article because it added more supporting details to my claim.
Mangan, Dan. “Economic Cost of the Opioid Crisis: 1 Trillion and Growing Faster.” CNBC, 13 Feb. 2017.
In this article, Dan Mangan explains the opioid crisis and how expensive it is for our society.
I used this article because it provides really good supporting details on the economic consequences of the opioid crisis.
Semuels, Alana. “Are Pharmaceutical Companies to Blame for the Opioid Epidemic?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 2 June 2017.
In this article Semuels explains how the pharmaceutical companies being sued is like the big tobacco companies were sued when the anti-smoking movement erupted.
I used this article to show synthesis between the smoking crisis and the opioid crisis.
Madhani, Aamer. “Opioids Are Adding a Dangerous Wrinkle to Violent Cities.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 25 Jan. 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/01/25/murder-opioid-epidemic-violence-st-louis/1065533001/.
In this article Madhani shows us the horrible consequences the opioid epidemic has caused and the young lives it has stolen.