Dreischarf, 1

Mason Dreischarf

Prof. Flores

English 1201 Online

05 May 2019

Connection Between Drug Addiction and Poverty

Have you ever driven through a part of a city that an immense amount of poverty

was visible and wondered how people have gotten to this point? Me too, in fact, I was

driving through inner-city Dayton, when I came across numerous houses that appeared

vacant with broken windows, trash sprawled out across the yard and street, and old

outdated cars along the curb. The first thing that came to my mind was, what has

caused this to happen? According to WHIO, a local news station, Dayton, Ohio is one of

the leading cities in the nation for the most Drug Overdoses, which is arguably the

number one reason cities like Dayton are so run-down and impoverished (WHIO).

Drug addiction is a very serious problem that occurs in the United States every

single day. Scot Thomas, a Senior Medical Editor for American Addiction Centers,

found that “an estimated 20.7 million people age 12 and older needed treatment for a

substance use disorder. Only 4 million people received treatment, or about 19% of

those who needed it”(Thomas). This means not even a fifth of people who need

treatment, gets it. If people changed the way they think of drug addiction and treated it

as a disease, people going through these addictions could get the support they need to

put a stop to it and prevent it. As a result, there would be fewer people getting fired for

failed drug tests and people spending their last dollar on negatively affecting drugs.
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Fig. 1. In this chart, it provides statistics of overdoses for all ages and how males and

females compare through the years of 1999 and 2017 (CDC).

Nadia Kounang, a CNN reporter, stated which drugs that are most commonly

connected with overdoses in the United States:

Heroin and illegally manufactured fentanyl are the two drugs most

commonly involved in overdose deaths in the US. In 2016, fentanyl was involved

in 28.8% of deaths while heroin was involved in a quarter of all overdose deaths

that year. Prescription opioids were still involved in at least 24% of overdose

deaths in 2017 (Kounang).

There are many different drugs that can cause someone to get addicted but heroin and

fentanyl are most common in cases with drug overdoses. Prescription opioids at 24% of
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overdoses cause a big concern and lead to another problem that can be found in the

United States. Doctors are prescribing drugs to patients that do not actually need them.

Drug use can cause many negatively affecting changes to the body. According to

the National Institute on Drug Abuse, some of the long term affecting functions include

learning, judgment, decision-making, stress, memory, and behavior (NIDA). These

important functions of the body are crucial to have for a long successful life. If the ability

to learn is impaired, how could someone get a new job? If judgment and decision-

making skills are poor, people might be making bad financial choices that may lead to a

loss of homes. Their behavior may change drastically causing them to do things they

would’ve never done with a clean mind leading to a possible layoff from their job. All of

these factors may lead to someone, battling drug addiction, to fall into poverty.

Fig. 2. This illustration breaks down different drugs that are commonly used and the

areas of which they affect the body (Addict Help Therapy).

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On the flip side, some people may find themselves turning to drugs when they’re

struggling financially. Dana Hinders, with the St. Joseph Institute for Addiction team

discussed how addiction and poverty are linked. Hinders mentioned risk factors of

poverty that may cause someone to disorderly use drugs. Some of these factors include

poverty to cause: an increase in stress and feelings of hopeless, and a decrease in self-

esteem, social support, and healthcare access (Hinders). For many drug users, they

turn to drugs to relieve themselves of stress and to have a feeling of life. Without social

support, many people may feel like they are by themselves in life and they do not have

a purpose anymore, as a result, they may turn to drugs. Lastly, without access to

healthcare, many people fighting addiction are not able to get the treatment they need

because they simply cannot afford it.

People cannot just assume that if someone is poor, then they are on drugs

because that is certainly not the case at all. But poverty and drug addiction feed off of

each other. Martin Yim, with the Borgen Project, made a great point, “Poverty leads to

mental states which can lead to drug abuse which leads to addiction, which begets

crime, which leads to worse employment prospects”(Yim). As someone increases their

drug use, it may increasingly affect their performance at work. They may show up late,

miss their shifts, fail to keep up with duties, and with attitude changes, they may get

involved in arguments with coworkers. As a result, this may lead to someone losing their

job. Consequently, they might find themselves fighting poverty and addiction at the

same time.

How can these problems be prevented? As a nation, everyone must realize that

addiction really is a disease. The initial choice to take a drug obviously is the user's
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fault. But the response that the brain and body have for the drugs is not the user’s fault.

Once drugs enter the body, the user has no control over what may result from it.

According to the Center on Addiction,

Most addictive substances cause the brain to release high levels of these same

chemicals that are associated with pleasure or reward. Over time, continued

release of these chemicals causes changes in the brain systems involved in

reward, motivation, and memory. When these changes occur, a person may

need the substance to feel normal (COA).

Once addiction has taken over, it is more of a craving. The user must get the feeling

that the drugs give to the body just so that they feel “right”. Those involved with

addiction are not able to fathom the fact that what they are doing to their bodies is very

harmful because of the brain always wanting more of the chemicals to be released.

For some, drug use and addiction may start young. Children in some families are

surrounded by their parents and friends that abuse drugs heavily or may even sell them.

Children, especially, need to be living in a clean, legal environment that does not

promote drugs in any way. If children are raised in a household where drug use is

normalized, they too will believe it is okay.

As previously stated, only about a fifth of the people who are going through

addiction actually get the treatment they need. Many are not able to afford the treatment

due to the fight against poverty as well. As addiction continues, the severity of it

increases which may be life-threatening. As a nation, everyone needs to spread

awareness about drug addiction. Everyone must realize that drug addiction is, in fact, a
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disease. With the spread of this awareness, more people struggling with addiction could

get the support and treatment they need.

On April 17, 2019, very recently, around sixty doctors, pharmacists, and other

medical employees are being charged for alleged opioid pushing and healthcare fraud.

The cases involve more than 350,000 prescriptions for controlled substances and more

than 32 million pills which is the equivalent of a dose of opioids for everyone across

Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and West Virginia, said Assistant Attorney

General Brian Benczkowski (Carrie). It is believed that for many, legal prescription

painkillers might actually be the cause of many addictions. According to Francie Diep,

who dived in on whether or not pharmaceutical companies are to blame for the drug

crisis, she found from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that in 2011:

Between 1999 and the late 2000s, sales of opioid painkillers—like OxyContin,

Vicodin, and Percocet—quadrupled. At the same time, overdose deaths involving

opioids almost quadrupled, and the proportion of people showing up in addiction

treatment centers saying they had an opioid addiction went up 600 percent

(Diep).

This stat alone proves that there must be a correlation between the sale of legal

painkillers and overdoses. Pharmaceutical companies are giving doctors medicine to

prescribe and, as a result, doctors are handing out more legal drugs for patients to use.

If a crackdown is put on pharmaceutical companies and doctors for handing out

these opioids, it may result in even worse consequences. Even though prescription

drugs are not the ones most common with overdoses, it is still believed this is where the

addiction begins. Patients who are not getting the prescriptions to painkillers that they
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might be addicted to might be turning their heads to even worse drugs such as heroin

and fentanyl. This is where the overdoses come in to play because these drugs are the

two most common to be found involved with overdose deaths.

Fig. 3. This figure breaks down statistics on overdoses and use of drugs. It provides

facts on the misuse of prescription opioids (U.S. Department Of Health and Human

Services).

With the support of the nation, helping those struggling with addiction, and the

crackdown on pharmaceutical companies and doctors that prescribe too many opioid

painkillers, we could slow up the opioid deaths tremendously. People need treatment

before they go on to decide to choose fentanyl or heroin.

Drug addiction is nothing to joke about. Those that do not have much social

support and are stressed due to low income may find themselves abusing drugs. If the
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nation wants to succeed, everyone must work together and understand the struggles

people with addiction go through. It isn’t their fault once the addiction kicks in. In the

end, it is just a huge overlapping circle between poverty and drug addiction which may

result in drug overdose if left untreated. Poverty can lead to drug abuse and drug abuse

can lead to poverty. They are interlinked and feed off of each other. Finding the root of

drug addiction within pharmaceutical companies and doctors prescribing too many

opioid painkillers is the key to fighting this battle of drug overdoses. If we can prevent

drug addiction, we can prevent overdoses. But first, we must gain awareness and

support for those fighting the addiction to provide them the treatment they need most.
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Works Cited

“Addict Help Therapy.” Addict Help, Alcohol Treatment Centres, 2019,

addicthelptherapy.netlify.com/alcohol-treatment-centres. Accessed 29 April 2019.

“CDC WONDER.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dec. 2018,

wonder.cdc.gov/WelcomeT.html. Accessed 28 April 2019

COA. “Addiction as a Disease.” Center on Addiction, 14 Apr. 2017,

www.centeronaddiction.org/what-addiction/addiction-disease. Accessed 20 April

2019

Diep, Francie. “Should We Blame Pharmaceutical Companies for America's Opioid

Epidemic?

Here's What the Science Says.” Pacific Standard, 3 Apr. 2019,

psmag.com/news/should-we-blame-pharmaceutical-companies-for-americas-

opioid-epidemic. Accessed 21 April 2019

Hinders, Dana. “Understanding the Relationship Between Poverty and Addiction.” St.

Joseph

Institute for Addiction, 18 June 2018, stjosephinstitute.com/understanding-the-

relationship-between-poverty-and-addiction/. Accessed 6 April 2019

Johnson, Carrie. “Nearly 60 Docs, Other Medical Workers Face Charges In Federal

Opioid

Sting.” NPR, 17 Apr. 2019, www.npr.org/2019/04/17/714014919/nearly-60-docs-

other-medical-workers-face-charges-in-federal-opioid-sting. Accessed 19 April

2019.
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Kounang Nadia. "With more money spent marketing opioids, more overdose deaths

followed,

study says." CNN Wire, 18 Jan. 2019. Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A570075334/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&

xid=d9cb8f56. Accessed 6 April 2019

NIDA. "Understanding Drug Use and Addiction." National Institute on Drug Abuse, 6

Jun. 2018,

https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/understanding-drug-use-

addiction. Accessed 14 Apr. 2019.

Thomas, Scot. “Statistics on Drug Addiction.” American Addiction Centers, 14 Mar.

2019, americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/addiction-statistics. Accessed

18 April 2019.

“U.S. Department Of Health and Human Services.” HHS.gov, Opioid Epidemic By The

Numbers, 22 Jan. 2019, www.hhs.gov/opioids/about-the-epidemic/index.html.

Accessed 28 April 2019.

Yim, Martin. “Addiction and Poverty Interlinked.” The Borgen Project, 20 July 2015,

www.borgenproject.org/addiction-poverty-connected/. Accessed 7 Apr 2019

WHIO. “Dayton No. 1 in Nation for Drug Overdoses.” WHIO, 24 May 2016,

www.whio.com/news/crime--law/dayton-nation-for-drug-

overdoses/y5TbZ36ygEHKXhtrmQNrIN/. Accessed 18 April 2019.