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.
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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.”
“I want the people that are doing heroin, fentanyl, crack, cocaine, even alcohol, all the stuff they’re doing, I want them to see exactly what they’re doing to their family, particularly the children, but their entire family – it’s total chaos and destruction.”
MIKE
“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.”
Continue Learning
Hey there! I hope you found this resource useful! If you’re interested in learning more about some of the topics discussed, you can browse through these additional resources. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you need help with anything else.
Harm Reduction
- Do Supervised Consumption Sites Increase Crime? ‘The Answer To That Is A Flat No’
- Does Evidence Support Supervised Injection Sites?
- Fact Check: Dispelling Myths About Supervised Consumption Sites
- Harm Reduction: A B.C. Community Guide [PDF]
- Harm Reduction for Opioids: A Canadian Perspective
- Harm Reduction Practices in Communities
- How to Use Naloxone
- Indigenous Harm Reduction
- National Harm Reduction Coalition – Harm Reduction Truth
- Rapid Access Models for Substance Use Services [PDF]
- Why Safe Injection Sites Are Considered More Effective Than Needle Exchange Programs
Opioid Crisis
- Beyond Supply: How We Must Tackle the Opioid Epidemic [PDF]
- California’s Opioid Crisis
- Facts About Naltrexone [PDF]
- Fentanyl: America’s Grim New Opioid Addiction
- How America Got Hooked on Opioids
- How Good Intentions Contributed to Bad Outcomes [PDF]
- How the Government is Making the Opioid Crisis Worse
- Opioid Crisis: Addiction, Overprescription, and Insufficient Primary Prevention
- The Impact of the Deadly Fentanyl ‘Plague’ on One American City
- The Opioid Crisis in Canada: A National Perspective
- Understanding the Opioid Overdose Epidemic
- Unraveling the Start of the Opioid Crisis
- What Led to the Opioid Crisis – and How to Fix It
- Why Is There an Opioid Crisis?
Opioid Use Disorder
- 2-Minute Neuroscience: Opioids
- Drug Addiction: How Opioids Like Fentanyl Work
- How Do Opiates Affect the Nervous System?
- How Drugs Hijack Your Brain’s Mu Opioid Receptors
- Medications for Opioid Use Disorder
- Medications for Opioid Use Disorder
- Opiate Addiction | The Causes
- Opiate Addiction | The Signs
- Opiate Addiction | Why It’s So Intense
- Opiate Use Disorder or Opiate Addiction?
- Opioid Addiction (CAMH)
- Opioid Overdose (WHO)
- Opioid Use Disorder (NIH)
- Opioid Use Disorder: Medical Treatment Options
- Opioids & the Body: The Science of An Overdose
- Signs of Opioid Use Disorder
- Therapeutic Approaches to Opioid Use Disorder: What is the Current Standard of Care?
- This Is What Happens to Your Brain on Opioids
- Treatment of Opioid-Use Disorders
- What Causes Opioid Addiction, and Why Is It So Tough to Combat?
Prescription Addiction
- Addicted to Prescription Drugs at Age Eleven
- Commonly Abused Prescription Drugs
- Hooked: The Dangers of Prescription Drug Addiction
- Opioid Addiction Is the Biggest Drug Epidemic in U.S. History. How’d We Get Here?
- Prescription Drug Abuse (Mayo Clinic)
- Prescription Drug Abuse (WebMD)
- Prescription Drugs (CCSA)
- Prescription Opioids (CAMH)
- Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic: Balancing Societal and Individual Benefits and Risks of Prescription Opioid Use
- Relationship between Nonmedical Prescription-Opioid Use and Heroin Use
- The Most Addictive Prescription Drugs on the Market
- Understanding Addiction Prescription Drugs
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