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Opioid Epidemic Problem Statement

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I. Problem Statement
What is the Opioid Epidemic?
The United States’ population has been cursed with an exorbitant amount of opioid overdoses, opioid overdose related deaths, and a substance abuse issue that transcends any race, ethnicity, and social-economic class. Furthermore, the Journal of Psychosocial Nursing & Mental Health Services reports that “although US constitutes 4 percent of the world population, Americans consume 86% of the worlds opioids” (Salani, Zdanowicz, 2016, 54(6), p. 30-37) The opioid epidemic is far more expansive than previous drug addiction cases in the U.S. population in the past, such as cocaine in the 1970’s and crack in the 1980’s. The reason why opioid addiction affects a more diverse group of people is because the main contributors to this problem are the pharmaceutical companies and health care providers (Slavova, Costich, Bunn, Luu, Singleton, Hargrove, Ingram, 2017). It is a combination of extensive advertising …show more content…

Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, etc.), poor pain management training at hospitals, and the pressure on medical providers to treat pain as a “vital symptom” that brought upon this devastating situation to America today (Arizona Republic, 2016). Why are so many people dying?
In the 19th Annual James L. Stone Legislative Policy Symposium, on November 3rd , 2013, Medical Director of Behavioral Services at Syracuse Community Services, Dr. Bill Hines, M.D. explained that it takes only 14 days of using opioids for a persons’ brain chemistry to change and become addicted. This means that anybody who experienced a painful surgery and was prescribed opioids for more than 14 days was at risk of developing a substance abuse problem. In the United

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