The Opioid Crisis – It Impacts Us All

Introduction

The opioid crisis — ranging from prescription painkillers to heroin and fentanyl — claims a life every 11 minutes in the United States, with at least five deaths each day in Florida alone. The likelihood of dying from an accidental opioid overdose has now surpassed that of dying in a car crash.. This is the story of one community determined to challenge these devastating statistics and fight back against an opioid epidemic tearing lives apart. Told through the voices of victims, front-line heroes, and dedicated community partners, it’s a powerful tale of pain, loss, and hope in Orange County, Florida.

Quotes

“An opioid is a class of drugs which binds to certain areas in the brain that help control pain and alleviate pain. They’re all essentially derived from the poppy plant … an innocent little plant that produces a milky fluid, a natural juice called opium which is the essence of heroin – the most destructive narcotic man as ever devised.”

“I do not agree with the statement made here today that Purdue has marketed Oxycontin aggressively, that is simply not the case. We have not promoted this product as less abusable and we have not promoted it as a substitute for less abusable opioids.”

“We plotted out [Oxycodone] deaths in Florida and we correlated it with the grams that have been prescribed and distributed legally. You don’t see correlations like this in biostatistics, where we had a 99% correlation.”

“Something had to step in a fill that void. You essentially created a bunch of people that became addicted to pain medication and now didn’t have the ability to get anything for it. What happened? Drug dealers got smart, said what can we do fill that void – they slid in heroin. Heroin was what we were dealing with in 2014 … towards the end of 2015 is when we say synthetic fentanyl.”

“As few as three days of being on a prescription drug can lead to chronic opioid addiction. As of 2018, Florida requires most opioid prescriptions to have a three-day limit.”

“We understand that the user is an addict, that the user has a sickness and I would no more make fun of or accuse someone who has cancer of being a ‘dirt bag’ than I would someone who has a drug addiction. We have to change that stigma, we have to look at them differently.”

“I’ve got kids and I know they suffer because of my addiction and that’s my main reason for wanting to change. They don’t deserve not having a father like they should because I’ve got an addiction.”

MIKE

“It’s like this full-time job where I wake up in the morning, I’m already feeling sick and I already have to figure out what I am going to do today to manage to get the drugs that I have to get.”

“The biggest thing that I was ever ashamed of has given me the most purpose in life, which is to help other people that are in the same position that I was in. As much as I helped them, it helps me tremendously to be able to do that and just to know that if I’m not careful, I could end up right back in their shoes.”