Untitled

in America drug overdoses

makeup over around

70,000 deaths annually.

Now, according to the center for disease control or the CDC.

over 70% of those deaths

come from opioid users,

Even though only about 1/3 of drug users overall use opioids.

That means that opioids

cause around

49,000 deaths every single year.

Okay,

How did we get here?

Well, the risen opioid addiction and in turn,

opioid overdoses began in the early 1990s when doctors began over prescribing

them for pain medications as a safe way to deal with problems at home.

The problem was that many of these people who were taking

opioids were misled by physicians into thinking they did not possess

addictive properties and that they were a very safe alternative to

staying in the hospital or taking not as effective pain medication.

When their addictions began to start, they would

continue to pursue

uh,

being prescribed these drugs until eventually they

either couldn't afford the prescriptions anymore or

until their doctors decided that they could no longer prescribe it to the patient.

This is where a lot of problems arose because now the patients,

instead of getting their prescribed medication would turn to dangerous

street drugs like heroin or fentaNYL to get their fix,

which is obviously more dangerous and unstable and cause

a large spike in the death of opioids,

Death from, of people from opioids.

Now for years, there was no significant increase in opioid-related deaths.

But in the 2010s,

there was a massive resurgence sparked from increased

heroin usage and other deadly synthetic street drugs.

Although addiction is proven

To be a brain disease proven by Harvard Medical School in 22016,

there is a lot of stigma still surrounding it.

Worst of all victims of addiction are incarcerated

in mass and criminalized by the government,

addicts are incarcerated all but destroying their hopes for the possibility

of them getting a stable job or contributing to society.

In fact, their lack of income due to a criminal record

causes many addicts to try and sustain their addiction through legal means

causing a vicious cycle of incarceration and addiction.

Other means of state sponsored treatment, including methadone clinics,

places where addicts can go every single day to satiate their withdraws.

This puts addicts on a very tight schedule limits them from traveling because

there are not many methadone clinics in other countries or around the country.

Um,

and it isn't a real solution,

It really only puts off their withdrawals for a later time.

As a country.

We are not using very many effective methods to combat opioid addiction

though there are many options proven

to drastically reduce opioid addiction and overdose

Take Portugal for example.

In 2001,

they decriminalized the use and possession of

heroin presumed to be for personal use.

In addition, Portugal, redirected funding from incarcerating drug addicts

to psychological and physiological assessments.

If considered an addict,

the patient must go through a rehabilitation program for six months.

And although this method is unorthodox,

It boasts dramatic results.

The New York Times reported a drop from 100,000 heroin users in 2001

to 25,000 in 2018.

A 75% decrease in heroin use, along with the drop, along with the drop of heroin use.

The decrease in HIV diagnoses from needle sharing is down over 90

with a few new laws and policies.

Portugal went from being the heroin capital of the world

to having the lowest drug related death rate in western europe

Today. The opioid

mortality rate in Portugal is 1/50 of the United States.

I think that we need to adopt a similar

approach to the opioid epidemic here in America,

a place where the death tolls and addiction rates have been growing for years.

Untitled

Chapters

Audio TranscriptAuto-generated