How Can we Stop the Opioid Crisis in White
America?
I adore the drama “Madame Secretary” on CBS Sunday
nights. Like the great “The West Wing,” “Madame Secretary” shows Washington,
D.C. politicos stuggling with current political issues, managing international
intrigue with spies and deal-making; plus trying to balance or juggle, family
and work roles in today’s high stress, high tech world. Sunday night’s episode
hit a nerve that we are all aware of from the news, the opioid crisis.
The actors tossed out some statistics that I hadn’t
heard. I didn’t know that 58,220 America military lives were lost over the
course of the Vietnam War. Compared to that, we are now losing 64,000 a year to
opioid or narcotic deaths, up from 52,000 in 2015. Whatever you call it, it is
drug addiction and drug abuse. This crisis affects all levels of society and
all ages. It’s not just a problem of the druggies and lowlifes, pimps and
prostitutes, veterans, or young people—though that hurts the worse, losing
young men and women, teens, and even preteens to drug addiction.
Like “Madame Secretary’s” fictitious President Dalton
with a drug addicted son and the Secretary’s husband Dr. Mc Cord’s rehabbed Alex,
the young Russian he mentors, this national crisis is personal to me. My
younger brother messed with drugs in his youth, was convicted of a non-violent
drug-related charge under three strikes, and became addicted to opioids after a
near-fatal car accident. His addiction ended his life with a drug-induced heart
attack at age 44. This event shattered our family since my mother sank into
depression and alcoholism and died a year after her youngest son.
Why did I title this essay “Drugged and Dying: The Opioid Crisis in White America?” Commentators
assume this is because doctors are under-prescribing opiates to people of color
and over-prescribing to whites. Yes, I’m using simplistic racial appellations
because they fit. Over the years we’ve been led to believe that drug addicts
are lowlifes and people of color. Perhaps some are. But now the largest drug
addicted and dying of overdoses demographic is best described as White America.
So now that it’s a crisis of white Americans, will we throw a lot more money at
the problem and finally fix it, if it can be fixed?
Remember Nixon’s War on Drugs back in the 1970s?
We spent over $500M a year for many years on aid to Colombia to fight the drug
trade there. And it didn’t help. In 2009, the Obama administration stopped
using the term “War on Drugs” and called for an end to it.
The Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP) is a panel of
world leaders and intellectuals, with a Secretariat based in Geneva,
Switzerland. In June 2011, the commission said: "The global
war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals
and societies around the world." Fifty years after the initiation
of the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and years after President Nixon
launched the US government's War on Drugs,
fundamental reforms in national and global drug control policies are urgently
needed." (Wikipedia)
But that report was criticized by organizations
that oppose a general legalization of drugs. Why not try
legalizing drugs? Everything else seems to have failed. Absent another
solution, I am for legalizing drugs: so
we can monitor and better control them, perhaps end the criminal incentives
associated with drug addiction (robbing and prostitution to get drugs), and ultimately
find and treat drug addicts at every societal level. Otherwise we’re still trying
to fight huge, well-connected Drug Cartels all over the world—in practically
every country. The illegal drug trade seems unstoppable.
If the United States is the largest consumer of
cocaine and other illegal drugs, then we are the “market” for the drug cartels.
Now more than 2 million Americans are drug addicted. Our loved ones are dying
for the drug cartels. And any country with money will become another drug
market for them. It’s a global problem, but personal to many of us.
We know prescription drugs are addictive. If you get
hooked, but can’t get your prescription renewed, then you turn to illegal drugs.
However, with illegal drugs, you just won’t know how “pure” your illegal drug
is. People are dying.
Opioids
are drugs formulated to replicate the pain reducing properties of opium. They
include both legal painkillers like morphine, oxycodone, or hydrocodone
prescribed by doctors for acute or chronic pain, as well as illegal drugs like
heroin or illicitly made fentanyl. The word "opioid" is derived from
the word “opium.” (From CNN)
There is no simple solution. Declaring a war on
drugs here didn’t work. Telling young people to just say no isn’t enough. But
we have to keep trying. And we have to enlist the entire world in this effort. So
what can we as writers, creative, and caring people, do about it?
As writers must speak out. We must spread the word
that this has to stop. We must sign petitions, write to our elected officials, and
talk with our friends and families. We must speak through our networks. We can
no longer be silent.
Don’t you know someone who’s addicted, or who has been
through rehab? Don’t you know someone with a friend or family member who is or
was addicted? Don’t you know someone who has lost a friend or family member to
drug addiction and overdoses? This has to stop.
Now is the time to demand action of those we have
put in power. We must be the voice for those who can longer speak for
themselves. Use your words to fight this epidemic. Use the power of the pen. I
pray for your help with this. Thank you.
*************
Penelope
Anne Cole
SLO Night
Writers Golden Quill Non-Fiction Finalist 2017
Tri-Valley
Writers Conference 2017 Prose Award
San Mateo
County Fair Short Story Award 2017
Award Winning
Author of Magical Matthew, Magical Mea,
Magical Mea Goes to School, Magical Max and Magical Mickey, and
Magical Mea Goes to School, Magical Max and Magical Mickey, and
Magical Max and Magical Mickey’s Big
Surprise
In and Out, All ‘Round About –
Opposite Friends
What’s for Dinner? and ¿Qué vamos a comer?
For
Halloween: Ten Little Tricksters and Diez pequeños bromistas
My Grandma and Me Coloring Book
New: My Grandma’s Pink HouseWeb/Blogs: http://www.penelopeannecole.com/