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The Opioid Crisis: How We Got Here and the Way Out

CBN

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Many of us have had personal experience with opioid addiction, whether it's ourselves or someone we know abusing heroin or prescription painkillers, the two most commonly used opioids.  Addicts fall into three categories:

  1. Still Addicted
  2. Died from Overdose
  3. Recovering 

Why So Many are Addicted

Approximately 175 Americans die from an opioid overdose each day, a shockingly high number.  But it is likely far less than the actual number, say investigators, because opioid addiction and deaths from overdose are vastly underreported. 

Most people who abuse opioids use heroin, but they didn't start out that way. An estimated 75 percent, some estimates report higher, of all heroin addicts first become addicted to prescription pain pills.  When their prescription runs out, they then switch to abusing heroin because it's cheaper and easier to obtain.  Heroin's low price and easy access is largely due to the fact that it is no longer manufactured all the way in the Middle Eastern country of Afghanistan, but rather right next door, with virtually no one standing in the way.

Ohio's Attorney General Mike DeWine, whose state is one of the hardest hit by the heroin epidemic, told CBN News heroin does not come from far away, so transportation is cheap and supply is abundant. 

"A number of years ago the Mexican cartels decided to grow the poppies down there, they process it down there, they bring it across our southern border and they bring it into Ohio and other states." DeWine says our porous border contributes to the problem.

The Painkiller Problem

Addiction to prescription painkillers has been around for decades, but in much smaller numbers than we see today.  The explosion occurred in recent years after the medical community was heavily criticized for not doing enough to treat pain.  Not long after that, pharmaceutical companies began formulating new, much stronger, significantly more addictive pain killers.  Doctors prescribed them liberally and their patients became hooked in as few as three days.  

DeWine was one of the first of the dozen or so state and city leaders to sue drug manufacturers for allegedly lying to doctors about the danger of the painkillers they were peddling.  "We had a number of pharmaceutical companies who developed pain medications and they were pushing those out," DeWine explained, "And they were telling the doctors, 'these are not very addictive.' Turns out, they are very addictive." 

Corrupt doctors discovered selling painkiller prescriptions was a good way to get rich on the side. In sting operations, DeWine and other law enforcement officials started arresting crooked physicians whose offices were like revolving doors, selling hundreds of painkiller prescriptions all day to pushers who filled the prescriptions at compliant pharmacies, then sold the pills on the street.  That crack-down meant pain pills became harder to find on the black market.

In another attempt to mitigate painkiller addiction, and by extension, heroin addiction, 17 states enacted legislation limiting doctors to prescribing only one week's worth of painkillers to their patients for acute pain.  A typical prescription is 30 days, even though most doctors will tell you the average post-operative patient needs them for no more than three days after surgery.  The new limits do not apply to doctors who prescribe pain pills to patients with acute pain, such as cancer patients. 

Jesus is the Fix

I have been blessed to interview a number of recovering heroin addicts.  They all have two things in common:

  1.   They became addicted to heroin after first becoming addicted to pain pills        following an injury or operation
  2.   They kicked the habit by harnessing the power of the Holy Spirit.

Sadly, far too many people do not succeed in secular rehabilitation programs.  What's worse, is drugs are rampant in these rehab facilities.  

Matt Gossard, a former paratrooper, became addicted to painkillers after being injured in a training accident.  He told CBN News when his painkiller prescription ran out, the transition to heroin was seamless.  After hitting rock bottom, he entered secular rehab.  He was shocked to discover the drug counselors were using and sharing the contraband substances! Needless to say, he left rehab every bit as addicted as when he entered.

Not long after that, he entered a Christian rehab facility and his real-life encounter with the Savior got him off drugs for good.  "I believe that Jesus Christ is the answer," he said, "I believe there is no other answer other than Christ."  

Likewise, Alane Vance told CBN News after several failed attempts to quit, it was Christ who made it finally work. "I started getting to know Jesus," she recalled, "And I realized that the same power that rose Him from the grave is what fights addiction. Not me. I can't beat it.  But once I realized that was the power fighting for me, I knew I was never, ever going back."

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