Rhonda Jerman And The Consequences Of Drug Overdoses

Heroin and opioids have grown in appearance in communities. Since, 2008 in Allegheny County alone there was more than two thousand overdose deaths, with one hundred-seventy-seven deaths in this year alone (Pennsylvania). Furthermore, in 2015 there was only one -hundred-twenty-six;

Many people do not understand why or how other people become addicted to drugs. Drug addiction is a complex chronic disease that causes impairment with the mind to express emotion, engage into physical activities and simply being one’s self. In fact, through scientific research, people understand more about how drugs work in the brain more than ever, and they also know that drug addiction can be successfully treated with some help from those who want change in the death rates amongst drug addict Americans. No one will ever truly understand why a person performs such deadly behaviors, but this is their way of crying out for help. It is time to take a stand and help those in need of escape from drugs and

There have been several news coverages on TV and social network about drug overdose of different cases recently and they have risen people’s concern about the problems of drug abuse national-wide. The drug abuse and opioid epidemic is not a new problem to the American society, actually it has been a serious problem for many years. So what is the situation of drug epidemic now, and how can we find effective ways to deal with this problem? A few writers who ponder this question are Nora D. Volkow, Dan Nolan and Chris Amico.

According to the article 2 of a Farmer’s 3 Children Overdosed, “Drug overdoses have nearly tripled since 1999, and the state has been ravaged. In Ohio, 2,106 people died of opioid overdoses in 2014…” Deaths due to overdose and hate towards oneself from using drugs is drastically increasing as well. I personally just found out that someone I went to middle school with killed themselves over the fight against opioid addiction. People begin to feel very depressed and are unable to understand they can get better. Users may feel like all they can do is fall back on their dependence. However, there are plenty of other options to

The rate of death due to prescription drug abuse in the U.S. has escalated 313 percent over the past decade. According to the Congressional Quarterly Transcription’s article "Rep. Joe Pitt Holds a Hearing on Prescription Drug Abuse," opioid prescription drugs were involved in 16,650 overdose-caused deaths in 2010, accounting for more deaths than from overdoses of heroin and cocaine. Prescribed drugs or painkillers sometimes "condemn a patient to lifelong addiction," according to Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This problem not only affects the lives of those who overdose but it affects the communities as well due to the convenience of being able to find these items in drug stores and such.

In my interview with LPD Pltm. Erik P he said, “When I first became a police officer for the City of Lorain in 2009 I wasn’t hearing as many calls as I do now about heroin overdoses. When I first started I hardly ever had to go to a specific location to help out a citizen with an overdose problem. Now, just about every day that I work I get dispatched to “Assist with LifeCare with Overdose” call. Whenever I’m on shift I’m always hearing an overdose call. Sometimes dispatch comes over the radio saying that the 911 call came from their child. That’s really heartbreaking that those kids are experiencing their parent or parents overdose right in front of them. I can’t imagine what the child is thinking about when their parents are overdosing. Now

As a result on this alarming phenomenon, deaths related to drug overdose saw a material spike upwards as recently as 2013. The number of deaths (13.2 for every 100,000 residents) earned the state the dubious honor of being ranked #19 in the nation for said deaths. In order to keep these numbers from getting worse, residents and their representatives need to start working together to develop prevention programs while making sure those who are suffering from an addiction have reasonable access to treatment and

Just last year, the United States experiences an astonishing 60,000 deaths related to drug overdose—with roughly 33,000 of those deaths due to Opioids. That means that more than 91 Americans die from an opioid overdose per day, making it the leading cause of death for people under 50. As I have said over and over again, this crisis affects Americans across all socioeconomic levels in all regions of the country – including the 6th District of Virginia – and has rightfully gained the attention of Congress as well as the

America is in the midst of yet another drug-related epidemic only this time it is the worst opioid overdose epidemic the world has seen since the late 1990’s. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC 2016), “since 1999, the number of overdose deaths involving opioids has quadrupled.” Opioids (including prescription opioids and heroin) killed more than 33,000 people in 2015, more than any year on record. (Rudd, Seth, David, School, 2015). With overdoses from heroin, prescription drugs, and opioid pain relievers surpassing car accidents as the leading cause of injury-related death in America, it became clear that swift and comprehensive legislation was needed for treatment, recovery support and prevention education in communities

A heroin overdose is generally a familiar, yet taboo, subject in today’s culture. It is familiar because one can witness the drug’s devastating effects like crime, imprisonment, and death within their community. It is taboo because it is culturally unacceptable and embarrassing to use an illegal product. Heroin overdoses have become a huge epidemic in Northwest Ohio, due in large part, to a misinformed culture, an influx of pain management programs, mixed drug toxicity, and a user’s desire to abuse laced heroin. With doctors, scientists, and researchers desperately searching for an answer to why heroin addiction is so prevalent, our community can find relief by being properly informed on

In September of 2016 an Afton Central School Junior overdosed on cold medicine; during school hours in the bathroom. After coming home from the hospital the 16 year old student was sent to a rehabilitation facility in Syracuse, NY (Martin, 2016). It also brought attention that it is not only illegal substances being used to obtain a high; it can be over the counter medicines sold at the local gas station. This is just one of the known overdoses that has received media attention. I interviewed one of the local gas station attendants in Afton T.C, whom informed me that she needed to call an ambulance one evening, because a teenage boy had been using heroin in the restroom, causing him to pass out and hit his head. (Personal Communication, 2017).

Opiate addiction has a segment, on most every, news broadcast on every local news channel for one reason or another. Either there is a story about a group of drug dealers who were caught with absurd amounts of money and heroin among other drugs. Or there is an account of a tragic loss of another life claimed by an overdose, sometimes even leaving behind children, or worse in the presence of children. A story of a young couple, in Louisville, Kentucky, who had fatally overdosed in their minivan with their toddler in the back seat left for hours with his deceased parents, comes

This video was extremely riveting and eye-opening. I learned the about the dire straits our country is saddled with concerning the heroin epidemic. I was surprised to know that overdoses from heroin saw a 164% increase in West Virginia. The death toll doubled from 2011 through 2013. There was 94% spike in Hampton Roads and 50% increase in Richmond. The familiar culprit in the vast majority of these cases is the gateway provided by prescription opiates. With current national and state laws becoming more stringent, opiate users that have become addicted most often turn to heroin. The video chronicled various horror stories of young promising lives wrecked, derailed, and destroyed by heroin addiction spiraled out of control.

If you have ever seen the movie The Wolf on Wall Street, there is no doubt you have seen the effects drugs can have. Leonardo DiCaprio portrays a high-strung stock broker reliant on a multitude of illegal drugs to keep up with his hectic life style. His addiction gets so severe that at one point in the movie, he is lying on the floor, unable to move due to the drugs’ effects on his body. Even though the movie is set in the 90’s, a decade infamous for its use of drugs, today, drug usage and abuse has never been more of an issue. According to Alice Park (2016), “More people died of drug overdoses in 2014 in the U.S. than in any other year” (p.49). What people fail to realize is that drug abuse effects more than just the individual that uses them. The loved ones trying to support the user, the community the user is in, can all be affected by drug abuse. In fact, all members of society are affected by the abuse of drugs. In short, no one benefits from drug abuse. In the words of the Nation Institute of Drug Abuse, “Drug abuse is a major public health problem that impacts society on multiple levels. Directly or indirectly, every community is affected by drug abuse and addiction, as is every family. Drugs take a tremendous toll on our society at many levels” ( Magnitude, 2016).

Heroin use and overdose related deaths have increased considerably in the United States in recent years (Jones, Logan, Gladden, & Bohm, 2015). The results of the National Survey on Drug Use and Health [NSDUH] (2014), showed in the year 2013, approximately 517,000 Americans abused heroin, which was almost a 150 percent increase since 2007 (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA], 2014). According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse [NIDA] (2014), in the year 2011, 4.2 million people who were twelve years of age or older said they used heroin at least once in their lifetime. Furthermore, data from NSDUH showed approximately 460 people, twelve years of age or older, used heroin each day in 2013 (Lipari and Hughes, 2015). An even more frightening statistic is death rates doubled for people who were twelve years of age or older as a result of heroin overdose in the years 2010 through 2012 (Hedegaard, Chen, and Warner, 2015).