Posted on 09/10/2017 2:34:17 AM PDT by Kaslin
The next three weeks we will look at possibly the largest and most dangerous crisis facing America. Please join us in taking an in depth look at the challenge for America.
If you were around in the 1980s, youll likely recall HIV/AIDS bursting on the scene with a vengeance. AIDS spread through the consciousness of America even faster than the disease. Who was exposed? Where did it come from? Today another epidemic has exploded into the minds of America that has everyone just as befuddled opioids. People are dying in mass numbers and no one has totally wrapped their heads around the problem to solve it.
The numbers are staggering. For people under the age of 50, opioids are the single largest cause of death. More than cancer, more than auto accidents, more than gun violence, more than any other cause. In fact, opioids were a greater cause of death in 2015 than HIV/AIDS was in 1995.
To give you a perspective, in 2015 there were 52,404 people who died from a drug overdose as stated by the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). Of that number, 33,091 involved an opioid. You might question that number since that includes heroin (which is an opioid). It is estimated that there are now 600,000 people using heroin in the United States and a full 80 percent started using prescription opioids, whether legally or illegally obtained. There are another estimated 1,900,000 Americans who currently either misuse opioids or have an opioid misuse disorder.
Like many other parents, Gary Mendell started confronting this challenge. Mendell was running his successful hotel business when he came to realize his son, Brian, was dealing with an opioid problem. For almost 10 years, Brian dealt with the challenge of addiction and all the negative aspects of life accompanying that. Brian lost his life in October 2011, but the world found a new leader on this issue -- his father.
Gary Mendell started seeing that there was really no national organization to confront the challenge. Mendell dug into educating himself to a different level and resolving the issue. He learned that eight of 10 of those who become addicted do so before their 18th birthday prior to their brains being fully developed. This led him to form Shatterproof (www.shatterproof.org). Mendell has thrown himself into the work behind this problem while putting the operation of his business in the hands of trusted lieutenants. He now works full-time to help others from suffering the same fate as his beloved son.
Where did this all start? As stated by Mendell, This started with the change in prescribing practices initiated by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval of OxyContin in 1995.
Between 1999-2014, the number of opioid drugs prescribed quadrupled. The number of people who died from opioids (prescription opioids and heroin) also quadrupled. From 2000-2015, roughly 500,000 Americans died from drug overdoses.
Why is it important to tie heroin together with prescription opioids? Many people become addicted to prescription opioids and then no longer have access to the medication. To alleviate the effects of their addiction, they turn to inexpensive, readily-available heroin.
ADOLESCENT CHALLENGES
The fact that adolescents are the most exposed to opioid addiction falls in line with scientific work directed at the age group. One prominent study was performed in June 2011 through Columbia University and is known in common nomenclature as the CASA study.
This study addresses the normal issues of the age group such as peer pressure, adverse childhood events based around abuse or trauma, genetic predisposition or engaging in other unhealthy behavior like risky driving, violent behavior or unsafe sex.
The most troubling is how the behavior of their grown relatives spurs their errant behavior. We all know how parents can establish good examples for teenagers being hardworking, committed family members, but the flip side -- poor role models -- can be devastating. Nearly half (45.4%) of teenagers live with a parent who is a risky substance user. Worse, 17.8% of children under 18 years old live with an adult (most likely a parent) who has a full-fledged substance abuse disorder.
The most debilitating fact is the parents dont seem to care. Less than half (42.6%) list personally refraining from tobacco, alcohol, marijuana or abusing prescription or illicit drugs as one of their top three concerns for their teenage children. When parents are setting such a meager example, it follows that we might have poor results from the teenagers in our society.
That would be immensely meaningful on its own, but then the CASA study defines the risks involved because of adolescent physiology. The overriding fact is that the teen brain is more vulnerable to addictive substances. As stated by the study, A growing body of evidence suggests that due to this increased sensitivity, addictive substances physically alter the reward centers of the brain faster and more intensely in adolescents than in adults, heightening their vulnerability to addiction.
During adolescent years the area of the brain related to such things as judgment, impulse control and decision making dramatically change in a manner that brings the brain to a fully-developed state. The primary transmitter signaling pleasure is dopamine. Dopamine decreases by a third as adolescents mature to adults. But dopamine initially spikes before falling which may lead to risk-taking behavior as teens seek external sensations.
It is this combination of risk-taking and increased sensation that leads to engaging in behavior while the adolescents brain is still developing, thus making it more susceptible to addiction.
The CASA study states, A growing body of evidence suggests that due to this increased sensitivity, addictive substances physically alter the reward centers of the brain faster and more intensely in adolescents than in adults, heightening their vulnerability to addiction.
The study found that addictive substances have a longer-lasting effect on teens and, more importantly, that teens are more prone to developing addiction and a lifetime of drug abuse. That accounts for why so many teens end up using opioids, becoming addicted to them and dying from them.
Next week: We look at the breadth and depth of the opioid problem
Let’s all handwring together in media hype and give government even more control into our dally lives
No Wardaddy no Percocet for you hoss just suffer in cause I know what’s best for you
We’re in an opiod crisis doncha know?
You’re a racist anyhow so suffer on you damn redneck
I’m so sick of do gooders....all my life listening to the cackle and preen of bossy mosey people
And now virtue signaling to boot
Here have a drink.....we ignore the real problem
The narcotic sky is falling
The stupid part is the dea, etc want Patients to see a “Pain Clinic” to get them for any length of time or quantity.
Well Many of Us don’t have any insurance and the clinics I’ve called want $600.00 plus up front for the 1st visit.
I DO NOT HAVE THAT KIND OF MONEY!!!
Valium are not for Pain. Stupid Doc at ER.
Valium
Generic Drug Name: Diazepam
Valium is a benzodiazepine. Diazepam affects chemicals in the brain that may be unbalanced in people with anxiety. Valium is used to treat anxiety disorders, alcohol withdrawal symptoms, or muscle spasms. Valium is sometimes used with other medications to treat seizures.
Data from: drugs.com
I know, FRiend. Not many of us do.
Thank God the pain went away by it self. But no way would I take a drug that might make get hooked on it.
but we prescribe the narcs like blinking an eye...
I've seen a guy with a prescription of 320mg of oxycodone a day, and he still was an unhappy person and needing more..
I'd love me some hydrocodone....
but you just can't let yourself fall into that trap...
I've experienced terrible bring to tears pain in my lower back...
guess what?...it went away...with PT and a short course of steroid pills, and TIME, it got better...
this....
I WANT MY PAIN GONE AND I WANT IT NOW!
See my post 52 in this thread.
My brother is not in physical pain anymore. Using the medicine as directed is cool. But these things bite. They’re evil. They make you feel artificially that all around you is just fine and dandy.They take the edge off, etc. You don’t smell like a vicodin talking to your boss. It’s an invisible and undetectable killer.(mandatory urine testing? nah)
Any wonder God is ripping us up with His mother nature? I really don’t blame Him.
You’re my new hero....:)...Congrats brother
Lost a very good friend to drugs when I was young. It's pure hell. I can't imagine going through it with a child.
The idea that our communities have purposely been flooded with these life stealing substances makes mt blood boil.
Only someone very ignorant or arrogant could think it couldn't happen to them. All it takes is being in the wrong place, at the wrong time in the wrong frame of mind.
Americans who misuse opioids/have an opioid misuse disorder = 1,900,000
Americans who misuse opioids and nobody know about it: 50,000,000....more???? who knows.
That’s the problem. You can’t look at somebody and judge: “Oh man, he’s on opioids”.
Just does not happen.
TY, it has not been easy... But the good Lord has been with us every step of the way.
I don’t know what tomorrow holds... but I know He holds it...
The only people that can help an addict is another addict. That’s why I’m out there 12 Stepping my rear off when applicable.
brown tar heroin
This killed my wife 4 months ago.
I tried and cried all through her ‘not to be’ recovery. Rehab, hospitals, NA,every darn thing I could research and think of. I was right next to her(not when she died unfortunately), and there was not one darn thing I could do.
Do you think I hate drugs right about now?
I’m sorry but I rather be insane and sober than sane and not.
The first big change was Oxicontin, and opioid painkiller marketed to doctors as non-addictive, which was a full fledged lie, started being prescribed as the wonder painkiller, and addicted a generation. Meanwhile we keep moving more and more to a relationship with medicine that boils down to: give me a scrip and stop bothering me. Chronic back pain is one of the big ones, lots of people have it, the best cure is get more exercise and drop some pounds, everybody wants a drug or an operation, maybe both. Operations have over a 2/3 failure rate, and the drug will eventually ramp up to an opioid and the person will become an addict.
We’re pushing doctors away from lifestyle prescriptions. No more do you hear “stiffen your bed and drop 20 pounds and let’s see”. We’re addicted to the pills before we even hit the doctor because we don’t accept the “old” answers to a lot of these chronic pain problems, just give us some pills so we can move on. Of course on the other side the doctors through around these scrips like there’s nothing wrong. Get dental surgery? Here’s a scrip for vicodin (also an opioid). Even when we don’t demand pills the doctors assume we will and give them to us instead of just telling us to use an icepack until the swelling goes down.
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