Oregon Makes National Headlines for Opioid Addiction
Another state has achieved “epidemic” status. For Oregon residents, it’s not “news” that there’s a major problem. But to join the ranks of states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia is a feat no one hoped for.
What’s different here is that Oregon’s drastic rise in overdose deaths is not being attributed to heroin, so much as prescription opioids like Oxycodone or Methadone. In fact, Oregon now has one of the highest rates of prescription opioid abuse in the nation.
Why is this scary? Surveys conducted among heroin addicts at needle exchanges prove the point; over half of all heroin addicts began by using prescription opioids. So, the trend indicates that heroin addiction is soon to be drastically on the rise in Oregon as well, as though it weren’t already bad enough.
Fentanyl has also been showing up increasingly in the heroin found on the streets of major cities in Oregon. This means more overdose deaths as a near-guarantee.
I’m not going to talk about how the government needs to do this or that, as I believe anyone who is rational can see the problem with our country’s pharmaceutical industry and its dubious connections. It’s easy to say what should be done about something. But to those being directly affected by this problem, opinions of that nature matter little and change even less.
Do you know someone who is an addict? Are you seeing signs that worry you? Are you, yourself having trouble with substance abuse?
Education is important because it can help people steer away from getting on prescription opioids in the first place. But to those who are affected, it’s too late. They need help. And not the “replacement drug” kind, which furthers prescription drug addiction.
As a former Oregon resident, and someone who works in the addiction-field firsthand, I wish I could say I didn’t see this coming. And, as a former opioid addict, I can tell you there is hope.
Treatment can be very effective when it aims to rehabilitate the individual rather than stop short at “harm reduction” or maintenance therapies. Let’s wake up here and not buy into the idea that pills will get you off pills. If that was effective, it would’ve worked already.
