Drugged and Dying: The Opioid Crisis in White America

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.

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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 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 House
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