Page 30 - Love of Music St. Louis Magazine

The Opioid

Epidemic

All four categories deliver the same effect as the ancient
opium latex method but some are synthesized in a labora-
LOM Staff Reports
tory. Opioids may reduce or relieve pain in some patients
More than 240 million prescriptions but the prescription they are filling at the pharmacy count-

were written for prescription opioids, er is in the same category as the dreaded, ugly word you
were warned about since you were a kid: heroin.
enough to give every American their
own bottle of pills in 2016. Four in Opioids, both prescription and illicit, are the main driver
of drug overdose related deaths in the U.S. Heroin ad-
five new heroin users started out by diction started to make headlines in the
misusing prescription opioids. 1970s as iconic rock stars Janis Joplin,
Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison all
passed away due to their addiction
and
subsequent overdose related deaths.
During the Vietnam War, it is estimated that ten to fifteen
percent of U.S. servicemenwere addicted to the drug as
it was easily accessible in Vietnam. Prescription opioids
entered the market in the 1970s but didn’t catch on right
away as doctors were apprehensive about prescribing
them. So, how did we get to where we are today?
By the 1990s, about 100 million Americans were
estimated to live with chronic pain. Drug companies
worked with the federal government to expand opioid
Every day in this country an average of 115 people die treatments at astonishing rates. Be-
from opioid overdose. You read that right. According tween 1991 and 2001, painkiller
to the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) website, 115 prescriptions tripled from 76 million
people overdose and die on a daily basis from the chron- to 219 mil- lion per year. By 2012,
ic misuse of prescribed painkillers. Class doesn’t matter. one-in-three drug users were being
Income level doesn’t matter. Education doesn’t seem to prescribed drugs more powerful
matter. From every level of society, people are dying from than mor- phine. By 2017, some
prescription painkiller overdose. It is beyond epidemic. It on Capi- tol Hill were pointing
is beyond most people’s comprehension. How can this be? at pharma- ceutical companies and
That’s 42,249 people in 2016 succumbing to prescription unethical sales tactics as the causation of the epidemic.
painkillers. One thing is for sure: the opioid epidemic is upon the U.S.
and it’s getting worse.
The name “opioid” is derived from the word “opium,” the
infamous pain-killing, sleepy-high inducing, highly addic- Perhaps the scariest part of the opioid crisis is the
tive drug that has been used since ancient times. Opium newest and strongest threat: fentanyl. 50 to 100 times
comes from milky white latex that can be extracted from an stronger than morphine and 30 to 50 times more potent
immature seed pod of the opium poppy. than heroin, only 2mg of fentanyl are needed to trigger
a fatal overdose. According to the DEA, one kilogram of
Prescription opioids are powerful pain-reducing medica- fentanyl can be purchased from China for less than
tions that have been used to treat moderate to severe pain $5,000 and resold on the street in the U.S. for
in many patients. $1.5 million.

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