Drug addiction has always been an issue in people’s life, destroying them and it’s been  increasing within the years. In Inside a Killer Drug Epidemic: A Look at America’s Opioid Crisis according to the editorial board there has been many deaths for overdose, “Public health officials have called the current opioid epidemic the worst drug crisis in American history, killing more than 33,000 people in 2015”. This is telling us that causes of deaths because of opioid has been increasing in the past years, people have been seeking everytime for more and more. In New Hampshire a large amount of people use drugs. Lately people has been getting cheaper drugs and had been more accessible to it. People get drugs more easily than they could get help that’s why the drug abuse rates has increased. If you call to a rehabilitation center they don’t see you right away they make you wait which is not adequate for someone who is seeking for help (Woodruff, 2016).

Deaths in overdose are becoming more and more common. Woodruff Argues “The statistics are staggering. In 2013, New Hampshire saw 192 drug overdose deaths. That number shot up to 326 in 2014. As of mid-December, 342 people died this past year. And the smart drugs guide fatalities are https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3286657/ just the tip of the iceberg.” ( Woodruff, 2016, Para.15) In just one year the drug overdose death almost doubled in New Hampshire.  In Massachusetts Katie Harvey is a 24 year old women dealing with addiction. “Katie has been hooked on heroin since she was 21 years old and where to buy modafinil online overdosed 5 times in those 3 years. In Massachusetts about 5 people die a day from overdose.”(Editorial Board NY Times, 2017, Para.13) From New Hampshire to Massachusetts, overdose is becoming something we are seeing increase over time and the deaths are becoming even larger.

The opioid drug crisis has damaged our public health and public safety issues. Drug abuse has always been a challenge for this country and it seems that we are not doing anything to prevent the worsening of this situation. For example, Linda Saunders Paquette (2016) points out to us that “addiction is a chronic relapsing brain disease” (p. 5). In other words, addiction is something that can destroy our way of thinking and the way we see reality, due to having this addiction as a disease that is effecting our brain on a daily basis. The easy access of drugs has also caused many deaths. Overdose deaths occurs once an addict gets there hand on a certain drug that they crave more than their normal treatment (Gatsas, 2016). These two examples both support how damaged our public health and public safety is. This is both hurting the community and people lives because they are deteriorating themselves and the environment that they live in.

Drug usage plays a big role in America’s death rate. Editorial Board (2017), from NY time’s article, acknowledges “Public health officials have called the current opioid epidemic the worst drug crisis in American history, killing more than 33,000 people in 2015”(p.1). This statistic shows how serious the drug epidemic is in America and how many deaths has resulted from it in the previous year.   Similarly, Woodruff (2016) illustrates how from 2013 having “192” drug related deaths has increased to “342” deaths in 2015 (p.1). Woodruff illustrates how drug associated deaths alone has nearly doubled over the course of 2 years.

deaths caused by opioid overdoses are becoming more common in the U.S. According to the New York Times editorial board (2017) “the opioid epidemic killed more than 33,000 people in 2015.”  (p.1).  PBS News Hour (2016), suggests that the cheap availability of heroin and other opioids have caused over 300 deaths in New Hampshire alone. it is also expected to hit 400 deaths for last years overdoses. this opioid epidemic is our most pressing public health and safety issue as of right now.

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.

Drug addiction is a rising cause of death in the United States. Both The New York Times and PBS highlight the affects of drugs in specific regions of the country, focusing mainly on its impact on the people in the communities. New York Times journalist, M. Scott Brauer (2017) emphasizes the downfall of our society by stating that in current years “deaths from heroin alone has surpassed gun homicides” (para. 2). Brauer highlights the nature of the epidemic by discussing the increase in the amount of deaths, due to heroin overdose, is surpassing other high rated causes of death. The rise in deaths by drug overdose has caused many politicians to focus on how they might handle the problem in their communities if they are allowed into office. PBS’s Judy Woodruff (2016) discusses drug overdose with politicians, their opinion on the epidemic, and how they may be able to help the victims. Hillary Clinton, during a debate, states that she has met several grandparents that now are taking care of their grandchild as a result of the rising death rate of drug addiction (as cited in Woodruff, 2016, par. 34). Throughout the video, the reporter sits with several people that either have been a victim or witnessed someone being a victim of drug overdose. Many of the politicians in the video discuss their personal experiences with their friends and/or family that they have or have almost lost in the war of drugs and how they have used that experience in their campaign trail.

Suffolk has 111 heroin deaths and 96 prescription opioid deaths

Claim

People are dying more from heroin overdose than compared to prescription opioid overdoses

Using heroin is more dangerous than being prescribed to opioids.

Suffolk has the highest deaths due to heroin overdoses than any other county mentioned.

Suffolk has the highest record of prescription opioid deaths than any other county mentioned.

Chasing The Scream by Johann Hari argues that addiction is not only due to chemicals. Johann tells about an experiment done by professor Bruce. Bruce’s lab rats experiments tells us that rats with good social and fun lives would never choose to take heroin and the rats that had bad lives would always take the drug. But not only that once the rats with bad lives were changed to a better environment where their lives were good they immediately stopped taking the drug. Johann tells us about bruce’s finding because it explains that that addiction is not only based on chemicals but also a major part in the environment that the person is in. This is not the only observations that points this to be true.

Another observation made by Bruce that argues addiction is not the only reason for addiction but environment is a major reason. Bruce tells us of what happened during and after the Vietnam war. During the war an extremely large amount of U.S soldiers were using heroin to cope with their horrible lives they had during the war. After the war something happened that a lot of people did not see it coming, 95% of soldiers that were using heroin simply stopped because their lives were now good and calm compared to when they were in war. Bruce informed us of this event because it was basically his rat experiment but in human scale and the results found in this event goes hand to hand with the findings of bruce’s rat experiment.

P.S: I didn’t notice that my Post didn’t wasn’t publish on the due date and I had not notice until I notice today in class when I went to the site. Hopefully you still give me some credit

the opioid epidemic is a public health and safety issue. “the lockdown” and the “heartbreak over heroin addiction” argue this…