State of Addiction: What Families Need to Know About Opioids

Introduction

This news special by NBC 6 South Florida discusses the opioid crisis with several individuals, including Mark Wahlberg’s brother Jim Wahlberg. You’ll be introduced to a brief history of opium and quickly realize that this addiction crisis began with easily accessible prescription medications. Drugs are now cut with fentanyl, which is extremely dangerous and lethal. People are losing their lives and law enforcement can’t seem to keep up with the massive influx of drugs coming into the country. You’ll also learn some strategies for talking to children about drugs, which is crucial to do given the sheer impact that opioids are having on youth.

Quotes

“Today ‘opioids‘ mean any substance, natural or man-made, that binds with the opioid receptors in the brain and body, including heroin and medications like oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, and methadone.”

“What makes the drug [opioids] the most addictive is the reaction your body has when it tries to quit.”

“Until this epidemic started to affect people from a higher economic standing in nicer neighbourhoods and with a different complexion, that’s when it became important. That’s when it mattered.”

“[By taking drugs off the street] We may have saved a life, we may have saved a family member from an addiction or a path to addiction, to give folks a better quality of life.”

“We have what’s called a ‘One Pill Can Kill’ campaign … coupled with our enforcement strategy and community outreach efforts to make the public aware of the dangers, the trends, and how lethal these counterfeit pills can be.”

“Kyle had surgery and that was the introduction to the opioids for the pain … the thing that we noticed about Kyle was that, if I get an opioid, I hate it, but he was euphoric from the first pill.”

“It starts early when kids are young. You have to establish a foundation of trust, of love, of open communication, and so I think if you can lay down that foundation it makes it easier to have these conversations later on.”

“You’ve got teenagers who are not quite adults, they’re struggling to find their own identity self-concept, they want to feel competent in the world. The best thing that we can do is try to give them that self-esteem so when they’re in a situation, in a group like that, they can actually push back and have the strength to do that. Their approval of themselves is worth more to them than the approval of other people.”

“Now that I don’t have this substance in my body to mask the trauma, to mask the depression, to mask the anxiety, and to mask the shame and guilt that I felt, that was the biggest challenge I faced.”