Opioid Nation: An American Epidemic

Introduction

This news investigation by Click Orlando covers the opioid crisis and “explores the lives of those faced with addiction.” They talk with several recovering addicts who provide a grim and honest look into the realities of opioid addiction, and analyze fentanyl specifically and its extreme potency and profitability. There’s also a very emotional part about babies born with an Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) and the impact addiction has on children. Additionally, the importance of Narcan is highlighted as a relatively cheap way to save lives, but not everyone in society agrees. You’ll also learn about a controlled environment that uses virtual reality to help addicts recover – an addition to traditional therapeutic treatments – and other ways of practicing recovery principles.

Quotes

“Physicians were actually penalized for not making patients 100% pain-free.”

“When prescribing opioids, Dr. Khanna uses a checklist to determine a person’s risk for addiction. She also has them answer questions to rate their sleepiness and sign an agreement that they won’t share or abuse these drugs. She says the responsibility falls on her to consider all of this when prescribing opioids”

“You’re chasing that same high that you had the first time you used, so why would I spend $30 on a pill when I can spend $30 on heroin and get twice as high? The heroin was a way for me to get that initial high back, that first time high back, that I hadn’t been able to get since the first time I started using”

“When I dealt it I didn’t care about who I was selling it to or what happened to them. It was, in my mind, their responsibility to handle it responsibly. A dead client isn’t a good client so we don’t intentionally try to kill them; as the dealer perspective we don’t care if they die though.”

“The most recent data from the US Department of Health and Human Services show as the opioid crisis gets worse, more and more kids are being placed in foster care. Nationally, the numbers jumped 8% between 2012 and 2015 … 2.5 million children now live with relatives or family friends instead of their parents. Substance abuse was the reason for the removal of more than 32% of children in 2015.”

“Dr. Warren Bickel, leading the nation in studying characteristics of who’s addicted to substances, his research shows how you see your future plays a role in addiction he calls your outlook on life ‘Future Time Perspective.’“

“[Archway Academy] It’s a school for kids who’ve already been to rehab for things like opioid and other drug addictions and need a safe place to learn. We were created by a group of parents who had lost their children to addiction.”

“If you are one of those people that are sitting there thinking ‘Oh I’ve never seen any, addiction has never affected me,’ you need to take a closer look.”