http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/23/health/heroin-opioid-drug-overdose-deaths-visual-guide/

This link will lead you to view a visual on how drugs are affecting America from each state. This article is written by two authors, Jen Christensen and Sergio Hernandez. The main concept on this article that these authors are trying to tell us is that drug use in America has been leading to effects that are much bigger then just drug overdose, they talk about how drug usage is leading to many deaths and are increasing throughout the country. Jen Christensen’s information can be found on this website, http://www.cnn.com/profiles/jen-christensen. This is credible because it uses information from one of the top drug research companies, CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). It was also published about 4 months ago so it is not outdated, the facts from the information she uses has also been facts checked which has proven to be reliable.

Jen Christensen is a producer and editor with CNN’s Health, Medical and Wellness Unit. She also investigates stories and documentaries for CNN’s Chief Medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. She has received many rewards on her broadcasts and has made other documentaries award winning. Christensen has worked with other companies as well, doing an amazing job for them.

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.

https://peacelawandjustice.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/newjimcrow-ch-1.pdf

The above will link you to The New Jim Crow. This is a work of non-fiction written by Michelle Alexander. The main idea of this work is our drugs laws work to imprison a select class and race of people. Information on Michelle Alexander can be found here: http://newjimcrow.com/about-the-author

She is a Civil Rights Lawyer; therefore, she has the experience needed to qualify many of the claims she makes about prison, legal representation, and drug wars.

DW

In German Lopez’s “America is in the middle of its worst drug epidemic ever,” Lopez states that the American country is in the worst danger ever involving drugs. Not only has drugs been killing off Americans for years but the medication for drug use might be cut off. For example, research from the Department of Human Services tells us that there are huge risks involving the termination of Obamacare, the resources that cover people who have drug use disorders will be lost and this will affect millions of Americans. Since tons of Americans rely on Obamacare for their insurance to drug disorders, the harder they will get hit if they cannot access their resources. According to the HHS report, 14 percent of hospitalizations for substance use or mental health disorders in 2014 involved someone who lacked insurance, down from 22 percent in 2013, which is just before Obamacare’s major insurance expansion provisions kicked in.” This indicates that before Obamacare had even existed, Americans were already in danger of overdose due to drug usage. If Obamacare is cut and the proper precautions are not taken, then the people of America will be in a dire situation of assistance dealing with drug disorders, the impacts might be critical.
Now even though the issue of resources getting cut to people who need it for their drug disorders, there is another significant issue in the making. If people do not have the resources to get their medicine, or their way of temporarily stopping drug use, the chances of drug epidemic will increase and cause many other issues.

The writer of Chasing the Scream highlights the correlation between drug use, mental conditions and loneliness.  The writer highlights the experimentation done by Bruce and Gabor on rats. The experiment concluded one’s reasoning as humans to use drugs. The results showed that rats were most likely to use drugs when they were alone in comparison to when they were with other rats. “There was nothing for them to do but to take drugs” said the experimenter while also stating “An isolated rat will almost always be a junkie.” Bruce and Gabor experiment highlighted the idea of rats not having anything else to turn to other than drugs. The experiment also highlighted how crucial mental conditions had on drug use. ” Miserable people will seek altered mental states to numb the pain” while also stating “Humans seem to have evolved with a deep need to bond, because it was absolutely essential to staying alive.” This overall showed the linkage between drug use and ones mental condition. The experiment highlighted the fact that us as human being needs to feel a bond in order to be secure. Most of the people who were addicted to drugs felt alone. The people who were addicted essentially just wanted an idea of self and connection. They connected with something that was essential stable, they could do drugs when they wanted and not be disappointed because it was always something the could have purchased or stolen. The chapter essentially highlighted that when not lonely people turned to drugs as an escape from reality.

Dr. Manny Alvarez is a member of numerous professional societies, including the society of prenatal care, American Institute of Ultrasound and medicine and the American Society for blood and Marrow transplantation. Now, he serves as FOX news Channel’s (FNC) Senior Managing Editor for Health News. On March 14, 2014, he published an article infibulated Teen drug abuse becoming an epidemic, must be addressed, in which he explained and provided database on drug abuse on teenagers and adults in the U.S. The reason why he published this article is because, he felt mad about the felled of drug and, he intends to do something about it. He stated that, the rate of teenagers that used heavy marijuana was about 80 percent (80%), with one in 10 teens saying that they used drug at least 20 times a month according to “The Partnership at Drugfree.org”. He also stated that, what felt him more and more mad is the rise of prescription drug abuse. Saying that high school senior are to most victims of it and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) found that one in five teenagers had taken prescription drugs without a doctor’s prescription in 2009. An example of non-prescript drug was painkillers. About 40 million painkillers prescriptions were given in 1991, 200 million in 2009 and 5.1 million people who were taking them in 2015. This showed that, the quantity of pain killers distributed on the soil was enormous than the population of the U.S which is only 318.9 million (2014). He explained a personal story in which he almost most lost his job. One day he started to receive a phone call from a pharmacy asking him an approval for a painkiller prescription. The pharmacist told him that, he called several times to get painkillers prescription and they needed to confirm if it was him who was calling for this medicine. He realized that, the prescription was written for someone he never sows before or heard about. And when he asked the pharmacist why they did notified him sooner about this painkillers prescription, the pharmacist told him they did not have to notify him. So he realized that a usurper was about to get painkiller prescriptions with his identity. So, he called the police and explained them everything and later the police successfully arrested this individual who was usurping his identity. Therefore, with all these data and example, we can notice that drug abuse is not in control in the U.S and because of that, the mortality rate of drug is still growing.