What most people don’t understand about the opioid crisis is that victims cannot always derive the strength they need from rehab, therapy, or their families. Those who struggle with opioid addiction find it very difficult to ask for help due to the stigmas that come with it. More importantly, they are incredibly determined to survive on their own because they do not want to be lumped in with the common worldview of opioid addicts.
I understand these connotations because of the circumstances surrounding my mother’s death. She was addicted to heroin.
The initial decision to take drugs is often voluntary for most people, but repeated drug use can cause brain changes that challenge an addicted person’s self-control and interfere with their ability to resist intense urges to take drugs. This is why drug addiction is considered a “relapsing” disease. As of 2017, the opioid epidemic has claimed the lives of almost 48,000 people; statistically, more than 130 people die every day from opioid-related drug overdoses.
Past and present administrations have promised to address the opioid crisis, but have failed miserably on both sides. Under the Obama administration, Obamacare did more to exacerbate the problem than solve it. A Senate report released in January 2018 said that “For dangerous opioids such as oxycodone, Medicaid co-pays can run as low as $1 for as many as 240 pills—pills that can be sold for up to $4,000 on the street.” That means people can easily get prescriptions and then abuse the drugs themselves or sell them at a huge profit.
[Also read: Melania Trump challenges media to cover opioid crisis as often as gossip]
In December 2017, President Trump re-assured the public he would fight to end the opioid crisis, as he promised numerous times on his campaign trail: “During my campaign, I promised to fight this battle because, as President of the United States, my greatest responsibility is to protect the American people to ensure their safety … it is horrible what’s going on with opioid and other drugs. But the opioid is something that nobody has seen anything like.”
But, sadly, not enough has been done on Trump’s part either. The opioid epidemic is still claiming far too many lives, and getting worse by the day.
Tragedies like my mother’s death are far too common because we continue to think of the opioid epidemic as a political problem that should somehow be resolved, instead of addressing it as a disease that needs to be cured. This disease effects more families than we realize or seem to accept, and something must be done other than continuously addressing it in every election or arguing about whether or not it should even be addressed.
Opioid addicts are not criminals or drug dealers. They are human beings with dreams of their own. They are individuals who are trying to escape a life with pain. They are men and women who have lost a child.
To the friends and families who feel alone or as if nobody understands: we do.
To the politicians who make campaign promises then leave our crisis unaddressed: do better.
[Also read: Kellyanne Conway stresses destigmatizing opioid addiction]
Rita Francesca Loffredo is a student at Binghamton University studying political science and human rights.
