Until you experience having someone in your family develop an opioid addiction, you do not understand the destructiveness of it. For years, the PHD wife of a close relative of ours hid her growing addiction to a pain drug she began using after suffering an accident. 10 years and a child later, it grew to encompass the whole family as the loss of judgment due to the numbing of her frontal lobes made her into an ogre. She felt entitled to everything. She was Queen. No one else had rights. They were only useful as co-dependents. Now, after being forced into excellent rehab and all of the state-of-the-art treatments known to man, she has left a pile of destruction behind her that will never heal. Her child, now a teen, is a mess, her husband is still there, but his life has been damaged beyond repair. She still craves and the family is not sure whether she is still using to some extent. Her behavior is such that everyone knows some brain damage will be her legacy forever and probably will rule out the opportunity to ever take her career up again. My take away from being a close observer of hers is this: Opioid addiction is a problem across the entire spectrum of society and inflicts those at the highest levels of government, academia, industry, religion, etc., the same as it does those in the lower economic levels. When we see undue arrogance and insane hypocrisies and fake news coming from certain individuals in the media, exactly what is behind that? When we see outrageous narcissism emanating from high levels of academia, entertainment personalities, and government, exactly what is behind that? This nation is awash in substances which control and destroy normal brain functioning, normal human behavior and interaction. It is the main ingredient now, I believe, in our dysfunctions, in whether or not we survive as a nation. Maybe our problems are not really ideological and our politics are not really “identity politics.” Maybe too much drug addiction has formed the swamp which needs to be cleaned up. Sorry about the rant but, as a trained medical person who has seen this problem up close and personal in so many of life’s venues, I cannot fail to realize that it has a profound effect on everything around us and it has to be dealt with. It is spreading like a fatal disease and it must be controlled, whatever that takes.
Thank you. So appreciate all that you said.
You are correct, it cuts across all socioeconomic strata. No profession is immune religious, medical, law enforcement, etc.
Prevention initiatives need to be expanded on all levels. Medication Assisted Treatment needs to be funded and accepted by the criminal justice system. But it needs to be done right or it becomes part of the problem. Done correctly it improves outcomes 9 fold over traditional treatment. It’s not perfect but a huge difference.