9781422279663

The Scope of the Problem 11

Addiction leads users to try to obtain more prescription pills from their doctor’s office, or from multiple doctor’s offices at once. Addicts frequently transition to buying opioids like heroin off the street. The cost becomes too high to sustain. Addicts begin to steal from family, friends, or neighbors. They may turn to prostitution or trade sex for drugs. Many are arrested, and ordered into drug treatment programs, or rehab. Often, individuals relapse, or begin to use opioids again. Rehab can be a revolving door. The most sobering statistic on addic- tion is that 90 percent of them start in a person’s teen years. Yet despite these grim numbers, there is hope to prevent further addictions and successfully treat already addicted indi- viduals. Even the most desperate abusers have found help.

Text-Dependent Questions

1. What has happened to the opioid overdose rate since 1999? 2. How do most opioid addicts begin their addiction? 3. What withdrawal symptoms do opioid addicts experience when they stop using drugs?

Research Project

Visit the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s Emerging Trends and Alerts webpage at https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/emerging-trends-alerts. Scroll down to the alerts, located in boxes with an exclamation point icon in the corner. Choose one of the alerts and write a one-page essay summariz- ing the issue.