The Causes of the Opioid Epidemic 1

The Causes of the Opioid Epidemic

The Causes of the Opioid Epidemic

Michael J.R. Cali

Independence High School

 The Causes of the Opioid Epidemic 2

Abstract

Throughout my conducted research, I have been able to re-investigate and find the top causes

of the opioid epidemic and what this epidemic can cause furthermore. From this said research

I was able to conclude that some of the main causes of the opioid epidemic are the

overprescription of painkillers by medical professionals and of course the similarity opioids

have to its cheap neighbor; heroin. Heroin is how things go bad real fast, (that is if the user

hasn’t already just overdosed on the opioids at first), when people run out of money they turn

to the cheaper high which is Heroin. As most heroin is injected directly into the bloodstream

these users die immediately. HIV from shared needle usage, and poverty from running out of

money on getting a fix are the leading results of opioids abusers in America. I believe that the

epidemic is caused by the 2 to 1 Opioid to Heroin cost ratio. If there was no switch to the

deadly narcotic Heroin, we would not have an epidemic in our nation.

Keywords: heroin, opioid epidemic, overprescription, painkillers

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Did you know that in the past 20 years over half a million human beings have been

mortalized by the opioid epidemic? With such a crazy statistic you would think our modern

world would be aware of the ongoing crisis, but in reality we are not. You might not know

though, the opioid crisis has actually been around for a couple of hundred years. Yet in the

twentieth century we have observed the conundrum spiral out of control and have a tornado

effect on our globe. Opioids used to mainly be used as a pain reliever for soldiers in the army

back in the late 1700’s, but as other drugs and narcotics became more apparent in everyday

society, even in regards to the recreational usage, the opioid crisis began to only skyrocket

and climb off the charts once it nearded the beginning of the twentieth century. The opioid

crisis is caused by the over prescription of painkillers by doctors and cheap prices of heroin.

It leads to third party factors like, HIV and poverty. When talking about this Opioid Crisis it

is important to note that this refers to the deaths this epidemic is causing and not solely the

addiction.

One of the most significant causes of the opioid epidemic which also happens to be

one of the main root causes, is the extreme over prescription of these very strong painkillers

to patients by medical professionals. The most common case is when an athlete of some sort

injures themselves and doctors over prescribe the opioids to act as an antagonist to the pain.

These athletes are given too many pills and too large a dose in such a short amount of time in

such a short time frame that the patients become accidentally addicted. According to the

National Institute on Drug Abuse (2018) , the opioid activates the large area in our brains
 The Causes of the Opioid Epidemic 4

known as “reward centers. Opioids trigger the release of endorphins, your brain's feel-good

neurotransmitters. Endorphins muffle your perception of pain and boost feelings of pleasure,

creating a temporary but powerful sense of well-being. When an opioid dose wears off, you

may find yourself wanting those good feelings back, as soon as possible” (p.5). When

provided with this in depth information regarding the addictive narcotic substance, it should

be very easy to depict these cliche situations with athletes, surgeries, or even a young kid

snooping around a parents medicine cabinet while they are not home. These are all reasons

addiction commences and it is the true beginning of the downward spiral the opioid epidemic

takes you in. Although an individual might become lucky and not overdose immediately to

the painkillers this is where it leads on to other issues. According to Washington University

School of Medicine (2018), “It is not unusual for patients to be sent home with 30,60, 90

pills, and they may only take them for two or three days”(p.1). When we dive deeper into this

we can clearly see that these doctors are going over the top giving opioid medication out like

it is candy on halloween. Patients or recreational users even who have not used the drug

before or at least in such a large dose become addicted and die. Every 18 minutes in our

country somebody dies from using opioids. Keeping this in mind there are of course other

ways to use opioids rather than being over prescribed by a medical professional, it seems as

though this is the leading cause in addiction and this now considered a gateway drug to

heroin.

Next in the reasoning when we look deeper into the opioid epidemic and why it is so

cruel to our society is the simple fact of how similar opioids are to the street version of the

drug known most commonly as Heroin. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse,
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this information will further depict the evidence of similarities on Heroin and opioids.“Heroin

and prescription opioid pain relievers both belong to the opioid class of drugs, and their

euphoric effects are produced by their binding with mu opioid receptors in the brain.

Different opioid drugs have different effects that are determined by the way they are taken

and by the timing and duration of their activity at mu opioid receptors” (p.2). This is

significant because what ends up happening is after the overprescription from the medical

professionals and people become addicted, they are unable to obtain the drug that their brain

and body thinks it needs, whether it is because the prescription has expired or pills on the

street are too expensive to buy, the user will switch to the less expensive and more accessible,

heroin. From the Recovery Village (2016), this information shows the specific financials

involved in these narcotics. “To compare heroin to the cost of prescription pills, an

80-milligram tablet of something like OxyContin can run as high as $80 according to many

reports. There have also been efforts to make these drugs harder to get and harder to abuse, so

rather than just stopping, many people instead move to heroin. The national average for

painkillers tends to be anywhere from $60 to $100 a pill”(pg.22). The issue with this is the

same amount of heroin is only $5 to $10 dollars. This is significant in regards to the overall

epidemic because when the majority of users make the switch to heroin, they start to inject it

and it gets into their blood streams causing it to be much more deadly. The uncanny

similarities in these two drugs is the reason the epidemic exists and the death toll continues to

rise but there are still other factors.

After digging further into the facts of this epidemic it is very evident that there are

actually third party factors that are involved in the death toll. Information from the Aids Map,
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has broadened the knowledge on needle usage and other significant issues pertaining to the

usage of and sharing of needles..“Drug use and addiction have been inseparably linked with

HIV/AIDS since AIDS was first identified as a disease.

According to the CDC, one in 10 HIV diagnoses occur among people who inject drugs. 1 In

2016, injection drug use (IDU) contributed to nearly 20 percent of recorded HIV cases among

men—more than 150,000 patients. Among females, 21 percent (about 50,000) of HIV cases

were attributed to IDU.2 Additionally, women who become infected with a virus can pass it

to their baby during pregnancy, regardless of their drug use. They can also pass HIV to the

baby through breastmilk”(pg.4). This is also a real significant problem because when abusers

switch to heroin they end up using those needles that were previously discussed and when

they are shared these deadly viruses are shared, thus, more people dying as a result of the

overall epidemic. Finally, we can also link another result or affect to the epidemic as a whole,

not just solely relating to heroin. This is poverty and addiction to the drug. According to the

Saint Joseph's Institute for Addiction, “as an addiction develops, it becomes increasingly

likely that a person will have problems performing at work. This might include arriving late,

missing shifts, failing to meet project deadlines, or getting into arguments with colleagues.

Eventually, this can lead to job loss”(pg.1). This is why people struggling from addiction are

often in such deep poverty that they starve and can’t last. They spend all their money on the

painkillers their brain needs them to get through the day. Although this is a less direct cause

of the epidemic we can certainly still connect the two as a major issue.

In our world today, the opioid epidemic is still a major issue prevailing in society and

currently still has a skyrocketing death toll that must be put to an immediate halt, yet there are
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so many factors like the over prescription of painkillers by doctors, cheap prices of heroin,

and third party factors like, HIV and poverty that all funnel into the cause of this. Although

this is such a large scale issue, many departments believe that with the cooperation of medical

professionals, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and of course the government, the

epidemic will be put away as day by day they crack down and chip away.
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References/Annotated Bibliography

Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs (ASPA). (n.d.). What is the U.S. Opioid Epidemic?

Retrieved December 18, 2020, from

https://www.hhs.gov/opioids/about-the-epidemic/index.html

This source is very brief and just has simple statistical information based on the epidemic

itself and this provides all sorts of brief data to depict the actual size of the epidemic. This is

useful in my paper because not only do I need to understand how big this epidemic is, this

will give the reader a bigger picture of the conundrum.

Blozer, M. (n.d.). American Society of Medicine. Retrieved December 18, 2020, from

https://www.asam.org/docs/default-source/advocacy/opioid-addiction-disease-facts-figures.pd

This source is more WHERE oriented as it depicts the different SPECIFIC locations that the

epidemic is located in or clustered. I would like to use this to put together a plan and analyze

why it is clustered where it is.

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Chasing the Dragon: The Life of an Opiate Addict | Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2016,

February 04). Retrieved December 18, 2020, from

https://www.fbi.gov/video-repository/newss-chasing-the-dragon-the-life-of-an-opiate-addict/

view

This is an hour long video where different drug users talk about the effects and abuse of using

drugs, specifically their paths from opioids to heroin and how this actually started to be

classified as a GATEWAY drug. This will be useful as it is a great source (My dad is one of

the DEA agents talking in this, with the FBI) but more importantly it shows actual abuse and

will be perfect for quotes in my paper.

History of the Opioid Epidemic. (n.d.). Retrieved December 18, 2020, from

https://dualdiagnosis.org/infographics/history-of-the-opioid-epidemic/

This source will be useful mainly at the start and end of my paper as it is about the history of

the epidemic ( when, who, how) (specifically where and when though). This will be a great

hook and ending for sure to give background information.

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Understanding the Epidemic. (2020, March 19). Retrieved December 18, 2020, from

https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html

Similar to the US HHS source this source provides much more in depth and further than

surface level knowledge of this huge issue, it also links other medical sights to use more

written information rather than DATA itself. This will be useful to refer back to in the bulk

writing of my essay.

National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2020, June 09). Prescription opioids and heroin have

similar effects, different risk factors. Retrieved December 18, 2020, from

https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/prescription-opioids-heroin/rx-opioi

ds-heroin-have-similar-effects-different-risk-factors

This source compared the differences and of course the similarities between heroin and

painkillers (opioids) and why people so easily switch to heroin. This will be useful in order to

show how opioids are now a gateway drug, how similar it is to heroin (the street version of

opioids).
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Opioid Misuse and Addiction. (2020, December 08). Retrieved December 18, 2020, from

https://medlineplus.gov/opioidmisuseandaddiction.html

Another one of my most interesting sources is from medicine plus as it goes through the more

“medical” information pertaining to the epidemic, ( symptoms, diagnosis etc.) This will also

be use in a similar way to the last source as I can talk about and correlate this with the

“chasing the dragon” video and use this as professional knowledge.

The Opioid Epidemic: What Is It and What Can You Do? (2020, November 20). Retrieved

December 18, 2020, from https://www.addictioncenter.com/opiates/opioid-epidemic/

This source is simply a guide in receiving help/treatment for someone who is a victim of the

epidemic and I plan to use this in correlation with the factual information on rehab, which

ones are successful, and the prices as these facilities are expensive as well as the opioids.

Aids/Hivs/Needles

Webb, R. (2019, June 01). Needlestick injuries, discarded needles and the risk of HIV

transmission. Retrieved December 18, 2020, from

https://www.aidsmap.com/about-hiv/needlestick-injuries-discarded-needles-and-risk-hiv-tran

smission
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This source depicts the dangers of needles and how they can spread HIV/AIDs and other

infectious diseases very easily and unknowingly. I plan to use this as an addition to the

overdose effect itself as people may become sick or die from sharing needles as well.

Scamper Paragraph

I specifically substituted words like people for abusers, users, and drug abusers to have a

more negative connotation or spotlight in my text (use of substitute. I added more lines in the

transition sentence for the leading causes area, sharing needles information in specific. (use

of add).