West Virginia Public Broadcasting Case Essay

The problem in this case is that KCDE-TV employees have the strong feeling of inequity.

Addiction to prescription drugs has remained an ongoing problem for residents of West Virginia. In 2014, 26.2% of all drug rehab enrollments in West Virginia cited other opiates as their primary reason for entering treatment. The category known as other opiates includes non-prescription use of methadone, codeine, morphine, oxycodone, hydromorphone, meperidine, opium, and other drugs with morphine-like effects. Coming in a close second as the most commonly reported substance of abuse among West Virginia drug rehab centers was alcohol addiction. 25.4% of the person’s entering treatment in the state during 2014 listed alcohol as their primary substance of abuse.

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;

rate and cities are struggling to find solutions. The CDC reports that 27,000 people die each year due to heroin overdoses. The jails are filled with offenders, that once released go out and use again, continuing a cycle of insanity without producing answers. Youths experiment with drugs, which is nothing new, but the availability of heroin, meth and the lack of education has contributed greatly to this epidemic. No one seemed to be paying any attention until it reached epidemic proportions, or as some have suggested, became "a white middle class problem" that surpassed the poor minority population.

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

The heroin epidemic in New Jersey has been more and more relevant in 2016 and in the past few months. There was a report earlier this year of a mother and father overdosing on heroin in a car with their toddler in the backseat. This along with other sad and tragic stories have shaped the public narrative of the heroin epidemic in New Jersey. A report last year by New Jersey Advance Media notes that the per-capita rate of 8.3 heroin-related deaths per 100,000 people is more than triple the national rate reported by the Centers for Disease Control (Hochman). Ocean County seems to be one of the impacted communities in New Jersey. The death toll in this county and many other in Jersey have been rising. Researchers have found that dealers in New Jersey are adding more Fentanyl, an opioid painkiller a hundred times more powerful than morphine, to the heroin and thus sells at higher rates because it produces a better and bigger high. And the purity of heroin in Jersey is higher than the average. The fact that drug dealers are cutting their product with deadly toxins, that make it more addictive and more dangerous and most importantly keeps the cost low. Heroin has morphine mixed in it and can be a more affordable stand in for painkillers. A bag of heroin goes for about $5 or $10 whereas painkillers go for about $40 or $50. The affordability of the drug and the addictive nature

“...from that moment on I didn't take heroin because I wanted to, I took it because I needed to.” Heroin is a highly addictive, illegal drug that comes from the opium plant. In just the year 2014, 12,000 people in the United States died from heroin overdoses. The York County community has made a big effort to help fight the heroin epidemic, but despite these efforts the county is clearly still struggling with over 60 overdose deaths last year. Some of the efforts York County is making include the use of NARCAN, drug drop boxes, the Good Samaritan law and treatment courts.

In Florida alone, thousands of Americans die every year due to the struggles of opioid addiction. According to Becker’s Hospital Review 1,399 (Rappleye) Floridians die each year from prescription or heroin overdose. Many families are affected by opioid

West Virginia the highest rate for an overdose in this particular state. The heroin is an inexpensive drug to buy, drug dealer can make their money this way. This particular drug Heroin gives you an internal rush it keeps you going for a couple hours. Levi says these rates are high because they started at a young age. Also Levi said “is too keep the kids interested in a sport of some kind of activities is so they don’t get hooked on this particular drug”. (McCormick, 2015) Heroin has taken a heavy toll in parts of West Virginia. Prosecutor attorney William Fell said Baltimore is the first heroin addiction and then Berkeley is the second highest heroin issues. Officer Master said the drug dealer is willing to drive to a larger city to get the heroin cheaper like the Pittsburgh District of Columbia or even Baltimore. (McCormick, 2015). This website called West Virginia Broadcasting said ‘The drug dealers will go to Berkley to get new customers or to get more people interested in this drug. Also the West Virginia Broadcasting mention Heroin Mass is up with person breathing system”. (Vorhees, 2015). West Virginia Broadcasting, Dr. Harman said When a person goes into an overdose, when they are brought to the hospital, they are given Narcan to bring them back to a normal breathing relaxing stage. (Vorhees, 2015). The doctor Harman said “will allow family members and friends of addicts to get a prescription for Naloxone” (Vorhees, 2015). Fire department Chad Jones said (Mistich,

I spoke with a good friend of mine Robert Ramos about this issue. He is a recently retired, 17-year veteran of the Attleboro Police Force in Massachusetts. He stated the problem is that with the addition of Fentanyl, a painkiller, heroin has gained an increase in popularity and has become more fatal. Overdoses from heroin laced with the painkiller Fentanyl jumped to new levels across New England over this past year.

Opioid abuse has become so widespread in Baltimore that on March 1, 2017, the governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan, declared a state of emergency. The rise in the number of opioid-related overdoses in the Baltimore have skyrocketed in the past few years. According to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 1089 people, a majority from Baltimore, died of a fentanyl overdose in 2015. In 2016, the number rose to 1856 deaths. (Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene 14). The spike in overdose deaths can be contributed to the increased use of Fentanyl. Fentanyl is 50 times more potent and costs less than a third of heroin (Adwanikar; Duncan). Drug dealers mix fentanyl with heroin to make their product less expensive to produce

Many people may not realize this but multiple states, including Michigan, are facing an epidemic. It is not a disease, however, it is a heroin epidemic. In a country where addictive opioid pain-killer prescriptions are handed out like candy, it not surprising heroin, also known as smack or thunder, has become a serious problem. The current heroin epidemic Michigan is facing, as are dozens of other states, has spiraled out of control in recent years. In Michigan, some of the areas hit hardest by this drug are in the southern portion of the state, like Wayne, Oakland, and Monroe Counties. The connection between painkillers and heroin may not be clear, but this is because both are classified as opioid drugs, and therefore cause many of the same positive and negative side effects. As a country, we are currently the largest consumer of opioids in the world; almost the entire world supply of hydrocodone (the opioid in Vicodin) and 81% of the world’s oxycodone (in Percocet and OxyContin) is used by the United States (Volkow). Along with consuming most of the world’s most common opioids, we have gone from 76 million of these prescriptions in 1991 to 207 million in 2013 – constantly increasing except for a small decrease starting in 2012 (Volkow). This widespread use has caused numerous consequences from increasing emergency room visits – for both painkillers and heroin – to sky-rocking overdose cases all over the country (Volkow). Michigan, unfortunately, currently has one of the

A huge epidemic that is obtaining a lot of attention from Congress and medical professionals across the county is the spiking heroin overdoses that are rising at alarming rates. (Krisberg, 2014). My question to everyone that is researching this topic is this:

According to O 'Grady, A. (2015). Fighting Ohio 's heroin epidemic, “At least 18 people die every week in Ohio from a heroin overdose” (para. 1). That is why the war on drugs is real. People are losing family members and loved ones due to the tight pull of drugs and not just in Ohio, this is a worldwide epidemic and mostly teens are getting hit by the peer pressure. Teens are into social media and their reputation among others. Therefore, they want to look their coolest and have fun through the teenage years. That is why they resort to drugs, get addicted and

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).