BY: Emily Mann
We have been hearing of famous names either deceased or taken to the hospital for a drug overdose. People such as: Demi Lovato, Mac Miller, Lil Peep, Tom Petty, and many more. While we hear of these popular names, we do not know how many people around the nation suffer from this opioid crisis every day. Aftermarket drugs are becoming bigger and bigger. Some people fall into terrible complications and other ultimately lose their lives.
When you are treated at the doctor’s office or a hospital, most of the time you are prescribed some type of opioid. Statistically, over 20 percent of patients who take the prescriptions use them for recreational purposes instead for what they are intended.
Opioids are found in the natural opium poppy plant. Some scientists use other chemicals to make pills and others use them straight from the plant. Some of the most popular opioids includes the following: Oxycodone (OxyContin), Hydrocodone (Vicodin), oxymorphone (Opana), morphine (Avinza), Codeine, and Fentanyl. Those who misuse these opioids are unaware of the correct amount to take and end up accidentally overdosing.
In July 2018, Demi Lovato was hospitalized due to an Oxycodone overdose laced with Fentanyl. These aftermarket pills being traced with other opioids (sometimes called “dirty drugs”) left Lovato on the edge of death. Fentanyl is the opioid in which caused the overdose in the “Sorry not Sorry” singer and is also the drug the ultimately killed Prince and Lil Peep. Mac Millers descriptive cause of death is still unknown, but it is evident that it was due to cardiac arrest from a drug overdose. Tom Petty passed away at the end of 2017 from a mixed drug toxicology (fentanyl, oxycodone, acetyl fentanyl and despropionyl fentanyl (all opioids, two illegal fentanyl analogs); temazepam and alprazolam (both sedatives); and citalopram (an antidepressant). While not all of these are opioids, most of them are.
The opioid crisis is rising because of the easy accessibility of these pills. The country has made it so easy for individuals to get their hands on the opioids that they are practically enabling this crisis to carry on. In 2016, 46 people died every day from a prescription opioid overdose. Just think, if the numbers are continuing to rise, how many people are dying each day this year from an overdose? The numbers have risen to 180-190 people every day. That is an equivalent of 72,000 people deceasing every year from an overdose. If you simplify and filter this number for deaths caused by opioids, around 43,000 people die each year. Filtering that even more, young adults are the prime targets of opioid overdose.
All of these deaths due to overdose mainly focus on opioids. That being said, it does not include the statistics of heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, Xanax, antidepressants, and many more. As the population begins to decrease due to drug overdoses, there does not seem to be much control on the situation. There needs to be a change in the way things are run. There needs to be a change in the easy accessibility of these drugs and maybe we can save the lives of those living with addiction.