Hey everyone,

I wanted to share this article from The Guardian that was only published on May 25, 2016 and highlights the opiate death epidemic sweeping America and specifically targets Fentanyl as a new threat.

I didn't want this link to be lost in the Sticky's as I believe it is important information and so relevant right now. There's a lot of misunderstanding about addiction and these opiate deaths are a largely hidden epidemic.

Prince was not alone, this is national crisis that needs to be addressed.

The article gives a broad overview however please google opiate epidemic to learn more - there's a tonne of information.

I urge you to read!...

http://www.theguardian.co...deaths-map

Some quotes from the article...

America is in the midst of an unprecedented drug overdose epidemic. Nationally, overdose deaths have more than doubled over the past decade and a half, driven largely by opioids – initially prescription painkillers, but increasingly heroin.

Today, more Americans die from drug overdoses than car crashes or gun fatalities. In all, drug overdoses killed 47,000 people in the US in 2014, the latest year for which data is available. That’s 130 deaths per day, on average. The majority of those deaths – 29,000, or 80 per day – involved an opioid.

And...

Stigma and inadequate access to treatment are the biggest barriers to overcoming the ongoing crisis in Appalachia and across the country, said Lofwall, who maintains a drug abuse treatment center in Lexington, Kentucky.

"People have views still that being addicted is your own fault, that it's a spiritual flaw, that you should be able to stop on your own," she said. But opioid addiction often requires medical help.

And...

New Hampshire reported a sharp rise in fentanyl-related deaths between 2013 and 2014. Since then, every New England state has reported its own fentanyl crisis. According to the Massachusetts department of public health, fentanyl was present in more than half of the 1,319 opioid-related deaths in the state last year.

[Edited 6/3/16 4:38am]

[Edited 6/3/16 4:38am]

[Edited 6/3/16 4:40am]

Big Pharma runs the show!

It's a "new threat" because suppliers are filling the demand caused by the most recent round of War on Drugs policies that made less dangerous opioids harder to get and that made more doctors and pharmacies paranoid about helping patients manage their pain.

Even more bad War on Drugs policies are not the answer. Neither are ludicrous proposals like Sen. Klobuchar's to tax opioid prescriptions, with the breathtakingly elitist excuse that it's fine because insurance companies will pay the tax for people who are insured.

Genesia said:

keenly said:

Go watch the documentary "Heroin: Cape Cod USA"

Advance warning... you will see what young opioid addicts (including a girl who was hit by a drunk driver and became addicted to opioids in the hospital trying to manage her chronic pain) go through trying to quit, and how difficult it is. Unfortunately, by the end of the documentary, virtually every participant will be dead.

Once you see real people experiencing this epidemic in real life, it will change your perspective.

keenly said:

Big Pharma runs the show!

Big pharma, greedy doctors and the insurance companies are collectively killing patients.

I've had six operations. Severe pain is no joke. I've had to take many kinds of opiates and it's by the grace of God that I never became addicted to anything.

I'll never judge people that go through this.

Junglehop said:

Genesia said:

So...there are no problems in England that are worth writing about, Guardian?

Wow… just wow. So you're seriously getting all defensive because a British newspaper chooses to publish an article about an American opiate crisis? Meanwhile, 80 of your fellow citizens die every single day from opoid overdoses, and not even Prince's death can pull your head from the sand.

Its a reasonable question given the problem isn't isolated to the US. The article you posted is written as those this were a US specific concern.

keenly said:

Big Pharma runs the show!

It's disgusting how the system works in the United States. I see pill pushers(pharmaceutical reps) all the time in my line of work, they influence Doctors to (over)perscribe there drugs to patients with gifts and incentives. It has always made me sick.

lezama said:

Genesia said:

Junglehop said:

Genesia said:

Exactly - thank you.

It wasn't a reasonable question, it was a knee-jerk reaction. Any intelligent person reading such an article knows that opoid addiction isn't isolated strictly to the US. This article is just addressing a US opoid crisis that has proliferated over the past decade - it's an important issue worth writing about. It's not like the Guardian doesn't write about similiar issues affecting the UK and other parts of the world - it's a paper that has a world focus, like all good news should. Don't take the article personally, learn from it. If it makes you feel any better, the journalist who wrote the article is American.

Indeed. Pretty much all of these online news providers orient their output towards an international audience, these days, and the sizeable American audience in particular. So, a feature such as this will have been commissioned to engage American readers as much as to inform Brits about an issue going on in America. In fact, given the way content is bought and sold in the globalised market, you could well see the exact same article (written by an American, drawing on American data sources) turning up in the NYT or some other US new outlet.

My cousin overdosed on Memorial Day, alone in his bedroom. RIP Evan, 24 years old.

MidniteMagnet said:

Why are opioids so addictive?

Every 19 minutes someone dies from an accidental drug overdose. Most of the time, it's from prescription narcotics called opioids.

Source: CNN

Junglehop said:

MidniteMagnet said:

My cousin overdosed on Memorial Day, alone in his bedroom. RIP Evan, 24 years old.

I'm so sorry. It really is an epidemic that people need to hear about, so sad and tragic, yet preventable.

Thanks! It was very sad but he struggled for years with addiction...