Stop The Opioid Epidemic Before It Stops Us

Deaths from opioid overdoses are skyrocketing across the country. Unless we take immediate action, the nation is about to witness a tsunami of drug-related deaths unlike anything we have seen since crack cocaine ravaged the country a generation ago. A recent investigation by the New York Times estimates 59,000 people died in 2016 from drug overdoses, making it the leading cause of death for Americans under age 50. Figures from three Oregon counties indicate that for each person who dies of an overdose, 26 experience non-fatal overdoses, and 100 are dependent on or addicted to opioids. The median age when people start injecting drugs is 21, which explains the surge in adolescent overdoses this year in states like Maryland, Florida, Pennsylvania, Maine and Ohio. State law enforcement chiefs are banding together to investigate the role drug makers may be playing in the wave of addiction, overdoses and deaths. As the head of Covenant House, the largest charity in the nation serving homeless, trafficked and vulnerable youth, I worry a great deal about how pain pills, heroin, fentanyl and other opioids affect the youth we reach each year. As anyone knows who has read Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic, a brilliant but depressing account of the spread of black tar heroin and pill mills dispensing painkillers, the forces behind the scourge are formidable: drug cartels that operate like pizza delivery services, avoiding police with replaceable drivers; drug co...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news