Emma Troyer

Mrs. Terry

Senior Seminar

December 8, 2019

America Addicted

The Centers for Disease Control estimate that 114 people die a day because of

drugs (​TIME ​magazine offers a much higher estimate), and 6,748 will be sent to hospital

emergency rooms for treatment (​American Addiction Centers​)​. Drug abuse in the past wasn’t

nearly the shocking phenomenon it is today. We’ve seen a striking rise in drug users and drug

overdoses in the past years due to multiple factors. Drug overdose deaths now exceed those

attributable to firearms, car accidents, homicides, or HIV/AIDS. America’s drug epidemic is

spreading due to anti-drug programs failing to educate about illicit substances, the

ill-management of rehabilitation centers, and over prescription of opioids.

Anti-drug programs like D.A.R.E. have failed to produce significant prevention

and harm reduction among students. The biggest reason that the program has been so ineffective

is because it uses scaremongering tactics that display completely inaccurate facts. “​A 1994 study

of students in Illinois found those who had gone through the program were no less likely to use

drugs, alcohol or cigarettes than students who had not participated in DARE”, according to the

National Institute of Justice. Using obviously false facts simply does not persuade people to

follow your principles. The failure to educate children properly about substance abuse and the

lack of proper rehabilitation centers are both major factors in this drug epidemic.
 Another vital reason as to why America’s drug epidemic is so prevalent is because

rehabilitation centers have failed to produce any significant change on a large scale. A major

reason as to why we are unable to quantify the success of rehabilitation centers is because there

is no commonly accepted way to measure this. “There is no standard definition of “rehab,” so

there is no standard metric of success for rehabilitation centers. Some facilities simply measure

how many of their patients complete their programs; others consider sobriety in the follow-up

months and years after “graduation” as the threshold for success.” (American Addiction

Centers). Since we have no way of determining what exactly is “successful” in terms of recovery

from substance abuse, we have no way to determine if these rehab centers are worthwhile.

Addiction, like many other diseases, can only be taken care of with constant action.

The largest problem concerning substance abuse and death in America is the over

prescription and abuse of pharmaceutical opioids. The rise of drug overdoses are attributed to the

rise of opioid prescriptions and the rising popularity of synthetic opioids and heroin. “From 1999

to 2017, almost 218,000 people died in the United States from overdoses related to prescription

opioids. Overdose deaths involving prescription opioids were five times higher in 2017 than in

1999” (CDC). Pharmaceutical companies have been marketing their medications to doctors for

decades. Many doctors get payments from these companies and only in the past decade have

these payments been documented. This clear example of corruption in our medical field is

damaging to our nation as a whole. “Purdue Pharma on Sunday ​filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy​,

part of a deal to settle thousands of lawsuits alleging the company misled doctors and the public

as it promoted its opioid painkillers, including its blockbuster OxyContin, and helped ignite the

opioid epidemic” (Statnews). We are now seeing the corruption that is part of our medical field,
and it is now evident to many politicians and everyday people that companies like Purdue need

to be regulated and controlled.

Many people point to the rising awareness of the drug epidemic as a huge factor in

slowing down the national crisis. “In October 2017, President Trump declared the opioid crisis a

public health emergency. “(White House) Admitting that there is a problem is a huge first step,

many twelve step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous proclaim this as the most important

step you can take when dealing with addiction. While our President has made the drug crisis a

public health emergency, little has been done or will be done to heal the nation’s wounds. “To

curb over-prescription, the President implemented a Safer Prescribing Plan that will cut opioid

prescription fills by one-third within three years.”(White House) Cutting back on prescription

pharmaceuticals would be a great step, but the fact that is unaccounted for is that many people

could and would turn to street equivalents such as heroin, morphine and barbiturates. “About 80

percent of people who use heroin first misused prescription opioids” (NIH). This astonishing

statistic shows that curbing opioids would turn thousands of people to heroin and other street

drugs. Opioid abusers need to be helped and nourished, not thrown aside and labeled as

“addicts”.

America’s drug epidemic is not taken seriously enough and is being dealt with

horribly wrong. ​ America’s drug epidemic is spreading due to anti-drug programs failing to

educate about illicit substances, the ill-management of rehabilitation centers, and over

prescription of opioids. Although steps have been taken to slow down this epidemic, schools and

agencies, public and private, are taking very little effort to fix this; and most of their effort is

misguided. The work that has been done to alleviate this burden will have many undesirable
consequences. We will have many former opioid users turning to street equivalents, uneducated

children using drugs and thousands upon thousands more will be lost to this epidemic if the

current course is continually followed. This problem will get worse before it gets better. In order

for it to get better, we need to identify our problems, become willing to fix them and move

forward with the tools and resources needed to strive.

 Works Cited

Lopez. “Why Anti-Drug Campaigns like DARE Fail.” ​Vox​, Vox, 1 Sept. 2014,

www.vox.com/2014/9/1/5998571/why-anti-drug-campaigns-like-dare-fail.

Sentinel, Joshua Vaughn The. “Evidence-Based Justice: DARE Proves Ineffective.” ​The

Sentinel,​ 23 Mar. 2018,

cumberlink.com/news/local/closer_look/evidence-based-justice-dare-proves-ineffective/art

icle_b85d88bf-ccfd-5c9a-b958-2da91dbc8abe.html.

Staff, Reviewed by Editorial. “Drug Rehab Success Rates and Statistics.” ​American Addiction

Centers​, ​americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/success-rates-and-statistics.

@DrewQJoseph, Andrew Joseph, et al. “Purdue Pharma Filed for Bankruptcy. What Happens

with Lawsuits It Faces?” ​STAT,​ 16 Sept. 2019,

www.statnews.com/2019/09/16/if-purdue-pharma-declares-bankruptcy-what-would-it-mea

n-for-lawsuits-against-the-opioid-manufacturer/.

National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Opioid Overdose Crisis.” ​NIDA,​ 22 Jan. 2019,

www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis.

“Ending America's Opioid Crisis.” ​The White House,​ The United States Government,

www.whitehouse.gov/opioids/.