Within the last few weeks, I have heard of two more young people dying from heroin overdoses. Tragedies like this are becoming ever more common.
Right now, in my opinion, there is a heroin/opiate epidemic going on. It’s spanning all ages, all races, all genders, and all socioeconomic statuses! It doesn’t matter if your town has a Starbucks or a beautiful, organic farmers market.
It’s happening. It’s serious. And it’s starting young. What’s worse? Opiates are deadlier faster than many other substances; as far as I’m concerned, they are taking our need to understand and treat addictive behavior up a few notches in priority.
How are young people getting access to opiates?
The opiates people start using aren’t necessarily being purchased in a back alley in a high-crime area. They are being prescribed, legally, by doctors. Yes, even to adolescents, who make decisions, choose behavior, and experience consequences differently than adults do.
Essentially, these young people learn about this opiate-induced feeling of numbness from a sports injury or from getting their wisdom teeth out. And since they received such a lofty prescription, they have extras (I sincerely hope fewer doctors are prescribing high quantities of pain pills to young people.) Is it that difficult to bring a few of these extra Vicodin pills to school or to a party? To experiment with?
If the teenagers don’t get prescribed these opiate painkillers directly, perhaps their friend did. Or maybe they just took a few out of the medicine cabinet in their home.
This is going to happen in your community—because it already is happening
It’s happening in Bethesda. It’s happening in Northern Virginia. It’s happening in affluent areas and less-affluent areas alike. This topic is becoming part of the mainstream because it is mainstream.
Jennifer Wiener’s book, All Fall Down, brought much-needed attention to the topic of opiate addiction. Though the book is fiction, the main character is a writer living in Philly, like Weiner herself. The character is a mom from a middle-class family who got prescribed opiates legally for back pain.
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