Understanding the Opioid Crisis
Merriam-Webster defines a crisis as an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which a decisive change is impending, especially one with the distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome. While this word gets tossed around casually, such as a mid-life crisis, or an unemployment crisis in our country, there is another crisis that needs confronting, the opioid crisis. If you don’t think this crisis lives and breathes in your area, you are wrong, chances are someone with an opioid addiction could live next door and it needs to be addressed. The statistics are staggering. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or NIH, every day, 130 people in the United States die after overdosing on opioids. The misuse of opioids includes illegal and synthetic versions. Roughly 21-29 percent of patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain end up misusing them and becoming addicted. OxyContin Heroin Vicodin Morphine Hydrocodone Other prescription pain relievers H...