Brooklyn Holmes

Dr. Cassel

English 101-13

25 November 2018

Drug Addiction

Drug addiction and overdoses are an important topic for me because at the age of six I

lost my dad to a drug overdose. They knew it was an overdose because of the history he had with

drugs and his addiction even though he had three kids to worry about. To know that he made this

choice was difficult and made it hard to cope with his loss. This event had the most impact on me

growing up because I never understood why people did drugs. When someone is addicted to

drugs, it affects not only the person but the people around them as well. Every day I live with the

fact that my dad made the choice to do drugs, and it was only up to him in that decision.

Addiction is defined as a chronic relapsing disorder characterized by compulsive drug

seeking and use despite consequences. Drug overdoses are the leading cause of death in the

United States which is caused by drug addiction. Over the past three years, the number of

overdoses has increased by 30% and are continuing to grow daily. Even though there are several

choices of drugs to be addicted to, the main ones in society now are opioids and heroin.

Although there is no exact answer on why drug addiction and overdoses are so common, there

are many factors that play into them. Researchers have stated that to decrease the number of

overdoses that rehab is the best option (NIDA).

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Drug overdose is the leading cause of death in the United States for ages under fifty.

Overdose deaths now exceed other causes such as firearms, car accidents, and homicides. The

“tough on crime” and the stigma associated with drugs use block prevention and treatment

policies. People ages twenty-five to forty-four who are addicted to heroin have quadrupled since

2010. Nearly 64,000 people have died of drug overdose since 2016 and have increased by

twenty-two percent from the previous year (DPA).

Opioid addiction and overdose are the most common drug epidemic in society today.

More than one hundred and fifteen people die in the United States after an overdose on opioids.

The addiction to opioids consists of prescription pain relievers and heroin. The economic burden

of prescription opioid overdose is 78.5 billion dollars per year. The reason prescription overdoses

happen because pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that the pain

relievers were not addictive. More than two million people in the United States suffer from

substance disorders. About 21 to 29 percent of patients prescribed opioids misuse them. About 8

to 12 percent of those develop an opioid disorder and then 4 to 6 percent of those end up using

heroin (DPA).

The opioid overdose has increased by 30 percent in 2017. Overdoses have become a

public health crisis. It has been discovered that pregnant mothers are likely to abuse opioids, and

this causes Neonatal absence syndrome. NIH (National Institutes of Health) and HHS (Health

and Human Services) have put in efforts to improve access to treatment, reoccurring of a drug

overdose, promoting use, the understanding of the epidemic, providing support and advancing

practices for pain management. This led to NIH to meet with companies to discuss non-addictive

strategies for pain, new medications, and technology to treat opioid disorders and improve
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recover services. The director of NIH launched HEAL (helping to end addiction long-term) to

find solutions for opioid use (NIDA).

Figure 1 Overdoses in the United States by numbers (Health and Human Services).

There are many reasons that researchers have found why people begin to take drugs. This

includes things such as personal issues, wanting to get high, relaxing, increasing alertness,

wanting to experiment and being accepted by one’s peers. In some cases, researchers have

discovered that addiction can also be caused by taking certain prescriptions after a medical

procedure and the patient misusing the prescriptions. Since drug addiction and overdoses are

most common in teens the two main causes of drug addiction are peer pressure and prescription

addictions. Some researchers have found that drug addiction can also be a genetic issue or the
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type of environment one’s in (Mayo Clinic). Another factor on why overdoses occur is

intentional overdoses for suicides according to the study conducted by Yaron Finkelstein. Yaron

Finkelstein is a professional in toxicology and pharmaceuticals, which makes him reliable to

conduct the study.

Addiction can have many effects on the body and the brain. It can cause many medical

issues such as seizures, damages to the immune system, heart issues, nausea, and widespread

brain damage. While the effects on one’s health are important there can also be many effects to

one’s everyday life. This includes loss of employment, family issues, homelessness,

incarceration, and finical trouble. While most of these are quite serious there is one outcome of

addiction that is vital and that is an overdose. Overdoses are more common to occur than a car

accident or being shot with a gun. Overdoses have become so common that a drug was

developed just bring someone back to life called Naloxone. Naloxone is a synthetic drug that

blocks opiate receptors to the nervous system and is like morphine (Mayo Clinic).

Another issue with drug addiction leading to overdoses is the issue with fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a potent, opioid pain reliever that is over one hundred times stronger than morphine.

Fentanyl is usually found in street drugs like heroin and cocaine. It is added to these drugs to

help raise the high experience they feel, and it can be sold for more money if included, also

known as “China White.” The addiction to it is serve and can be very dangerous. Fentanyl

usually leads to death by repository failure and can be very harmful if you become tolerant to the

drug. The signs of abuse for fentanyl is vomiting, hallucinations, confusion, seizures, and

sweating. To see if someone has overdosed on fentanyl you should see difficulty swallowing,

dizziness, fainting, cardiac arrest, and no pain response (Lauteri).

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In society today, the solution to “cure” drug addiction is to go through the process of

Rehabilitation. Depending on which center one attend there are a various number of steps an

addict must go through. The most common number of steps is nine. These steps include

admitting that one has a problem, to find support, detox, go through early sobriety, finding a new

routine, the pink cloud stage which is where one’s life is starting to form, getting one’s life into

order, avoid relapse, and finally to enjoy the rest of one’s life sober. Most people can’t complete

rehab because it is too challenging for them and they can’t handle the symptoms. Withdrawal

symptoms include pain, lack of sleep, lack of appetite, nausea, and severe stomach pains. When

those symptoms pass the early sobriety, symptoms occur which can cause irritation, depression,

anxiety, and panic. Going through this process is a choice and is very difficult (DPA). According

to the CDC, the success rate for rehabilitation is from 70-90%. This option for addiction and to

decrease the number of overdoses seems to be the most successful.

According to the Center of Addiction drug addiction is a complex disease of the body and

the brain that causes compulsive use of substances. Most medical professionals agree that

addiction is a disease because of certain chemicals in the brain being released. These chemicals

make substance abuse seem normal to one and cause changes in the brain such as memory or

motivation. These chemicals can be dangerous and make one vulnerable in situations. Drug

addiction is not a choice in the end because one can’t control what how their brain reacts. A

chronic disease is defined as a condition that can’t be controlled not cured making drug addiction

defined as a disease.

There has been a controversy on how drug addiction should be handled, and that rehab is

not the most effective option. This idea has been introduced many times since the 1960’s but

most medical professionals don’t agree. It has received less criticism because it has proven to
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reduce the mortality rate, criminal activity, and it improved the wellbeing. There was a new

option introduced in 2006 by Bakker and Fazzey. Even though this study was conducted twelve

years ago, there is still doubt that rehab is successful and there need to be other options. They

have professions that are experts in this topic which made them qualified to complete this study.

The point of their research was to prove to the General Medical Council that giving drug abusers

methadone to help them get clean. The study began with the researchers asking the one hundred

and twenty-one patients how much methadone they believed they needed to avoid withdrawal

symptoms. The test has shown more success on patients who have taken methadone prior to the

study, but if not, the patient is just required to be watched more. Then they are required to take a

tolerance test to see how much they need which this number compares to the number opioids

they intake regularly. Giving a too low of a dose to a patient can be less beneficial because it can

cause toxicity so a higher dose, approximately above 100 mg of methadone is suggested for the

patient. Also having a too low of a dose will cause the patient to replace the missing methadone

with street drugs such as heroin. Once the tolerance test is completed the researcher is required to

sit down with the patient and explain the risks of the study. The patient must watch for symptoms

of withdrawal and possibilities of toxicity. The patient can only receive doses of methadone from

a pharmacist and once they receive the dose, they are required to go see the researchers a few

hours after to make sure there is no possibility of an overdose. This is followed with more doses

of methadone and visits to researchers to check progress. The test concluded that seventy-six of

those patients are still registered and estimates only .2% will lead to death. In case of emergency,

Naloxone is on hand for patients that overdose accidentally. These researchers believe that this

will cause better outcomes than rehab every could and it would greatly benefit society (Bakker,
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Fazzey). The Drug Policy Alliance is still working to pass this solution to the state and federal

legislation. They believe that this is a more thought out solution than rehab.

Since DPA doesn’t believe in rehab and feels that methadone treatment is more effective,

they also believe that there are other ways to decrease overdoses. This includes more funding for

Naloxone, the strength of the Good Samaritan Laws, Support Consumption Services, and Drug

Testing. Naloxone returns breathing to unconscious overdose victims and it is used in emergency

departments. Naloxone has saved over 27,000 people and could potentially save more if used at

the scene. The Good Samaritan Laws offer immunity to people who have committed a drug

offense if they went out if their way to save someone’s life by calling emergency services.

Support Consumption Services are given people a place to use drugs responsibly and are under

supervision. There is also the option of Drug Checking which is a urine test to see if a person is

clean, so they can make better decisions.

The answer on why drug overdose has become so common in our society will never have

an exact answer. I have discovered through my research that there are a various number of

factors that play into addiction such as mental issues, prescription addiction, peer pressure, and

even just experimenting. The issue has grown dramatically over the past few years and continues

to be an issue daily. The opioid epidemic and the laced fentanyl issue have become the most

prudent cause of overdoses in the United States. Since the 1960’s there have been multiple ideas

given on how to decrease the number of overdoses but the only one that medical professionals

can agree on is rehabilitation. Rehabilitation has a high success rate of 90% and there many

facilities all over the country that are ready to put an end to this social-economic crisis.
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Works Cited

“Addiction as a Disease.” Center on Addiction, 14 Apr. 2017, www.centeronaddiction.org/what-

addiction/addiction-disease. Accessed 25 November 2018.

Bakker, A. and Fazey, C. (2018). “Methadone tolerance testing in drug misusers.” NCBI

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1647386/ Accessed 7 Nov. 2018.

“Drug Overdose.” Drug Policy Alliance, DPA, www.drugpolicy.org/issues/drug-overdose.

Accessed 4 November 2018.

Finkelstein, Yaron, et al. “Repetition of Intentional Drug Overdose: A Population-Based Study.”

Clinical Toxicology (15563650), vol. 54, no. 7, Aug. 2016, pp. 585–589. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1080/15563650.2016.1177187.

National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Opioid Overdose Crisis.” NIDA, 6 Mar. 2018,

https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis. Accessed 7

November 2018.

“Prescription Drug Abuse.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and

Research, 19 Oct. 2018, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/drug-

addiction/symptoms-causes/syc-20365112. Accessed 27 November 2018.

Public Affairs. “What Is the U.S. Opioid Epidemic?” HHS.gov, US Department of Health and

Human Services, https://www.hhs.gov/opioids/about-the-epidemic/index.html. Accessed

27 November 2018.

“The Effects of Fentanyl Use.” DrugAbuse.com, American Addiction Center, 29 Jan. 2016,

drugabuse.com/library/the-effects-of-fentanyl-use/. Accessed 13 November 2018.

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