If doctors are more empathetic when treating their patients they can reduce the addiction to opiates. In the articles, “Veterans Face Greater Risks Amid Opioid Crisis,” (2016) Childress, ” and A Growing Number of Veterans Struggle To Quit Powerful Painkillers,” (2014) Lawrence, the authors argue that the reason opioids are used more often than natural forms of treatment is because they are both easier and quicker for the doctors to prescribe. In “Can You Get Over An Addiction?” (2016) Szalavitz, she argues that when society begins to treat drug addiction as a learning disorder, then treatment will become more focused on compassion. The addiction to opiates in America will continue to grow as long as doctors prescribe them without first testing other forms of treatment. If we dedicate time to natural forms of treatment we can reduce the addiction to the opiates and eventually eliminate it completely.

When our doctors begin to recognize addiction as something to be treated with more time, they will stop prescribing so many opioids. The doctors prescribing these drugs believe they are the only form of helping people deal with pain. Most patients are prescribed pills to deal with their pain and then they are prescribed more pills to control the side effects (Childress, 2016, p.2). This is the problem that society must change. Resulting to natural remedies such as yoga and acupuncture will reduce the patients reliance for so many pills at once. When Lawrence (2014) interviewed Gavin West, a member of the Opioid Safety Program, he said “It’s always easier to just prescribe a pill. (Lawrence, 2014, p.3). West stated that although they have tried other types of medications, they continue to go back to prescribing opiates. There is no proof that these other forms of treatment were unsuccessful. Resulting in the easiest option is the reason why so many people continue to become addicted to these drugs.

As the opioid crisis in America grows, the victims to drug addiction are in need of easier access to getting help for themselves. Gladys Johnsen lost her daughter’s partner to an overdose that occurred just weeks after he was searching for help. She stated that she heard him calling rehabilitation centers asking for help but he didn’t find anything due to lack of money (as cited in Woodruff, 2016, p. 1).  With more affordable treatment centers, these victims of addiction will be able to get the help they are seeking for before a tragedy strikes. Along with affordability, people face an issue with simply finding doctors in their communities that can help them overcome addiction. In a small town in Iowa, drug addicts that wanted help had to drive far away to treatment centers. Morgan (2017) informed us about how “That changed about a year ago when two doctors here were licensed to prescribe Suboxone, a drug that eases withdrawal symptoms and helps keep opioid cravings at bay” (p. 2). With these doctors being able to prescribe this drug, addicts now have easier access to recovering from their opioid addiction. One reason most people can’t stop on their own is because of the withdrawal and detox that occurs when they stop taking the drugs. With the help of these prescriptions the symptoms are mild.

In Chasing the Scream, Johann Hari blames people’s addiction to drugs on their environment. He uses an experiment conducted by Bruce Alexander using drugs and rats to explain why addiction is influenced by their habitat. In this experiment, rats that were in an empty cage took more drugs than rats that were in a cage filled with toys, activities, and friends, which took less drugs. Hari uses this experiment to prove that the lonely rats had no choice but to become addicted to these drugs. He argues that the rats that were in a happy environment chose to stay away from the drugs and spend their time doing other things. Johann Hari also uses studies done on humans to link drug use to people’s surroundings. According to studies done on soldiers in the Vietnam War, about twenty percent of them had become addicted to heroine while being deployed. The same study later showed that 95% of the soldiers that were addicted, stopped using the drug when they returned home. This led Johann Hari to further believe that these people were simply addicted to drugs not because of a chemical issue, but because their environment gave them no other choice. Bruce Alexander’s rat experiment and the study on the soldiers during Vietnam War both showed results of addiction to drug forming because of the subject’s surroundings. These conclusions are the reason as to why Hari argues that drug abuse isn’t chemically induced. Through these examples and more, he has proven to us that a person’s environment plays a role in how they can either become victims of drug abuse or completely avoid it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/books/high-on-hitler-and-meth-book-says-nazis-were-fueled-by-drugs.html?_r=0

The link above will direct you to High on Hitler and Meth: Book Says Nazis Were Fueled by Drugs by David Segal. Norman Ohler reveals in his interview that his latest book, Blitzed, will go into detail about the drugs that both Adolf Hitler and the Nazi army were on during the Holocaust.

David Segal has been an author for The New York Times for many years. This newspaper is a well-known source who has their articles reviewed by peers before they are posted. His article contains direct quotes from Norman Ohler who is a published author for many years as well.