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Santiago Sandoval Duran

Simone Flanigan

English 2010

1/22/2024

Drug Addiction

As we grow and learn, we will experience all sorts of scenarios and issues that we would

have never thought we would encounter. This is how we learn and grow as humans. We go

through issues and experiences to shape you into the person that you are today. Everyone goes

through something different and lives life differently. No matter where one is from or how they

grew up they will encounter some type of issues in life. Nowadays, it is very easy to find

problems in the world, you ever ask yourself, why some of these issues happen?

Growing up, it was never easy watching my family go through struggles and not being

able to do much about it but wait to see what happens next. I remember seeing one of my uncles

who dealt with addictions, this time was different, and I could not grasp what was happening. I

have heard of drugs and what type of damage they do to people. I never changed my feelings

towards my uncle because no matter what happens he will always be my uncle.

One morning, I woke up from a sleepover with all my cousins, we were all crammed in a

room that didn’t smell too good. I found myself awake before my cousins and my first thought to

my head was food and video games. I never bothered to wait or wake them up, I simply just

woke up and did my own thing. As I walk up the stairs I sense something that is not the usual

and the house is almost too quiet. Once I get upstairs I see everyone sitting down in the living

room just staring off into the distance. I begin to ask what is wrong and nobody responds, I lean

into my mom's shoulder and whisper “What is wrong? Mom”, she brings me into the kitchen and
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begins to explain that my uncle is in the hospital because he was on drugs and almost overdosed.

I didn’t know how to react or what to think, I just stood there in shock.

I now don’t see my uncle that often because he is always in and out of rehab. This whole

event hit me hard and made me realize what drugs can truly do to people and how they change

someone overnight. You begin to look at the stats and see how big these types of problems are in

the state of Utah. In fact, according to the CDC, in 2018 there were 21.21 deaths per 100,000

people related to drug poisoning each year in Utah. There were 67,367 total drug overdose

deaths in the US in 2018. Overall, Utah ranked 20th in the rate of drug overdose deaths in 2016

—about 22.3 deaths per 100,000 people. Utah is one of 22 states with an overdose rate higher

than the national average.

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Works Cited

“Loss to Overdose.” College of Nursing | University of Utah Health, 7 May 2021, nursing.u-
tah.edu/loss-overdose.