Opioid Fever

In 3 decades, drug overdoses have killed roughly ~900,000 people in the United States. The extent of the issue has only worsened in the advent of synthetic drugs, which includes fentanyl and heroin.

In the latter half of the 1990s, healthcare providers began to prescribe opioid pain relievers at greater rates, reassuring the medical community that patients would not become addicted to them. This was based on several studies conducted that showed that prescription drugs could be utilized safely with minimal rates of addiction for chronic pains. This promptly led to widespread abuse of these medications before being obvious that these were highly addictive. As a result, the opioid overdose rate increased drastically.

As a result of these abuses, countless cases of drug overdoses, especially those of heroin (opioids) have been tracked all over the United States. Products used to help victims of drug abuse and overdoses included Naloxone, which was in short demand at a time. Many people had family and friends who were victims of drug abuse, and they wanted to put an end to it as soon as they could. Unfortunately, the epidemic spread so rapidly that people struggled to keep up with a large number of cases. Due to the widespreadness of heroin addiction, many relationships have been severed. Heroin addictions were mainly found in poorer neighborhoods, as it was sometimes the only way they could cope with their situation.

In modern times, many new ideas are being formulated to try and contain the spread of heroin addictions and to curb the number of cases and times they have to use naloxone to prevent deathly overdoses. Though the efforts in the past have seemed to work, people are trying to learn new ways to stop these abuses. For instance, people have tried making personal connections with victims of opioid abuse to get the victims to understand what they are doing to themselves and the repercussions it has on their lives and relationships. Overall, modern solutions must be utilized to end the modern spread of the opioid epidemic that still affects many.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroin(e)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naloxone
https://www.ajmc.com/newsroom/5-updates-on-trends-in-drug-overdose-death--in-the-united-states

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