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Opioid Crisis Essay

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Prompted by individual thoughts, small groups, and an entire class discussion, a very problematic world opened our eyes. When differentiating between federal, state, and local problems, we all realized that many of these problems are closely connected. Federal level categorized problems were what stood out the most to me; in particularly the opioid crisis. The opioid crisis personally is categorized as a federal issue, yet directly effect state and local municipalities. Since the opioid crisis is so widespread and vastly growing, attention is brought to a nation level. Victims of the opioid crisis mainly stem from normal lives, obtaining opioids as a form of legitimate pain management for medical reasons. Upon prolonged use of these opioids …show more content…

One major solution to this problem is simply the accountability that the offenders are held to. These addicts are too often just sentenced to be incarcerated for years on end, or to drug programs with no real sense of urgency. Drug addicts do not belong in prison, that sentence only leads to further problems such as prison overcrowding or prison violence as a whole. Drug addicts do need to be held accountable though, with the sentence to a mandatory drug treatment facility. Too many times drug offenders are looked at with leniency on behalf of the judge and are sentenced to a termed probation as well as to completion of a drug program. These drug programs are court mandated, yet are not state regulated. These addicts view them as option when their craving kick back in and they are having an off day, and they leave. They view the risk of being incarcerated with greater reward rather than being in a drug program, so they never finish them. If these programs were ran by the state (and not an outside company), mandated that the addicts do not leave until a certain point of ability, and actually implemented, I feel that the opioid crisis will have hit a dent in

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As elaborated by Katelyn Newman, in her article ¨A Personal Look at a National Problem¨, the opioid epidemic in America is both severing family relationships and resulting in widespread suffering. In the aftermath of the historic increase of prescription drug abuse in the United States, as well as the opioid epidemic being deemed a national emergency by President Donald Trump, Newman brings to light the true impacts the crisis is having on the United States. By generalizing the population, expressing her words in a solemn tone, and through alternating between narrating and informing, Katelyn Newman calls all americans to be conscience of the opioid epidemic, and the effects it is having on the relationships between people within the United States.

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The government is also supporting the movement. The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act lets the National Institutes of Health speed up research on developing non-opioid painkillers. The Act also creates programs that give money to states for their addiction treatment. One program is medication-assisted treatment. They prescribe opioids that dull the addiction craving but don 't really produce a high, the medications are called methadone or buprenorphine.

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I. Importance: As American deaths from drug overdoses continue to rise in the United States, the nation is faced with a public health crisis so profound that in October 2017, President Trump declared the opioid epidemic to be a national public health emergency (Merica). President Trump’s declaration came after numerous studies indicating the danger opioid addiction posed; for example, a 2016 study entitled “Increases in Drug and Opioid-Involved Overdose Deaths—United States, 2010-2015” claimed that drug overdose deaths “nearly tripled during 1999-2014,” reaching a startling high 52,404 deaths in 2015 (Rudd, et al). These statistics are more than just disturbing revelations regarding the opioid crisis; they are evidence of a serious problem that is rapidly affecting the lives of more and more Americans every year. Death by overdose is not the only public policy concern, however, as millions of Americans are also addicted to prescription opioids.

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This message is one of hope. Though the opioid crisis continues to take lives in record numbers, claiming seven lives an hour in America there is a end in sight perhaps through education and this scholarship. The Opioid Awareness Scholarship serves two vital roles in creating change, the first being to raise awareness of the epidemic as it exists today, while inspiring people to make a difference. The other is to empower those who have been impacted by the crisis personally to produce a real change in the world. In other words, through the creation of this scholarship, Siler & Ingber LLP are offering a ray of light to those whose lives have been so negatively impacted by the darkness of drug addiction, while simultaneously brining much needed awareness to the issue for those who are currently unaware of its

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