Opioids_Who_Is_Using.qxd

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Who Is Using Opioids and Opiates?

“He didn’t want to be an addict,” Jacob’s mother, Mari DeGroote, said. “He wanted more than anything to get well.” He agreed to a stint in rehab . He said, “I wish I’d never taken that first pill. I never thought I would become addicted. I thought I could be smarter than the pills.” Family problems followed: fights over his drug use and Jacob’s parents kicking him out of the house. He went away to rehab and the night he returned home he doubled up on pre- scription sleep and anxiety medications. His breathing stopped first, then his heart. Jacob is just one of many victims of drug addiction. A Growing Epidemic Since 1999, the number of overdose deaths has claimed more than half a million people—quadruple the rate it had been prior to this. The majority of these deaths involve opioids, both prescription opioids and heroin. Once an inner city, low- income user problem, the scourge of opioid abuse has moved into the suburbs. Now it affects the lives of Americans both rich and poor, urban and rural. It respects no ethnic or cultur- al differences. Abusers range from pre-teens to the elderly, from one end of the United States to the other. Opioid addiction has become more than a set of sobering statistics. It has become an epidemic, one which continues to claim lives, destroy families, and crowd jails and prisons due to users who steal and commit worse crimes to feed their habits. It overwhelms hospital emergency rooms, and costs employers millions in lost productivity.