Fed Up With Losing Their Kids To Drug Overdoses, Parents Share Their Stories

Every morning, when I log into Facebook, I’m already braced for the punch. I know what I’ll see. Another parent, another family, posting about their child’s fatal overdose. Social media is flooded with pictures of kids grinning in their graduation caps – and comatose, plugged into a monitor in the ICU. These posts are sad memorials to the victims of the opioid crisis – and a call to action, to government, big pharma, and our communities. These deaths are preventable, and they affect every one of us. After all: this could be your kid. Heroin use continues to grow dramatically as the opioid epidemic ravages our communities. Yet, many people who use opiates and die from overdoses aren’t truly addicted. Some haven’t even developed a chemical dependency yet. They’re recreational users, or they get their opiates from the pharmacy. I was one of those people: prescribed painkillers following a bad ankle injury, I quickly found that I needed more pills. Like many other people, I turned to black market alternatives when my prescription ran out. I ended up nearly dying. What would my mom have posted on her Facebook page? What stories would my friends have told about me? I am one of the lucky ones: I survived, and now I’m working to fight the addiction crisis that kills so many people who are just like me. In the past year, a disturbing trend has appeared in post mortem toxicology reports. In British Columbia, Canada, a significant number of overd...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news