By Tanhar Islam

Whether it’s a heroin overdose or an opioid overdose, drug overdose has been a big problem in the U.S. since the first wave in the 1990s, when we saw an increase in opioid prescriptions. Drug overdose deaths from opioid prescriptions have been increasing since 1999.

The U.S. experienced its second wave in the drug overdose deaths in 2010, when there was a rapid increase in deaths involving heroin. And in 2013 the U.S. experienced a third wave, marking a rise in synthetic opioid overdose deaths.

Broadly, deaths from drug overdoses have been high. In 2017, more than 67,000 deaths occurred due to overdoses and in 2018 more than 70,000 people died. From 1999 to 2019, nearly 450,000 people died from drug overdoses.

Of all the drugs, opioids have dominated in terms of deaths. Out of the nearly 450,000 people dead in the past 20 years, 232,000 people died from prescription opioids.

Many of these deaths could have been prevented. In fact, we could have helped the people struggling with drug abuse. We needed to realize that earlier.

The “tough on crime” motto that had been preached nationally during the decades long drug-war has prevented people from actually receiving proper treatments and help in terms of helping them get out of their drug addiction.

The drug war stigmatized the abuse of drugs. It made many drug addicts be thought of as criminals, dehumanizing them from society and placing them in the “others” category in the social hierarchy. What we do not realize is that drug addiction is a disease, not a crime that deserves harsh punishment.

Along with this harsh rhetoric came racial stereotypes regarding drug addicts. However, data shows that counties with higher prescribing of opioids generally involve a higher percentage of white residents, a higher amount of people uninsured or unemployed, and areas with more residents with diabetes, arthritis, or a disability, according to the CDC. Overdose deaths are also increasing across all racial groups, but non-Hispanic white people have the highest rates of death.

Other factors for drug abuse include poverty and lack of economic opportunity. People used addictive drugs like opioids and other drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine to escape stress, hopelessness, or disadvantages.

The information affirms the fact that drug addiction can affect all people, not a select few.

Instead of going with the stereotypes of drug addiction, we should instead look for ways to fix it. Drug overdose deaths are the leading cause of death in the United States of people under 50.

Once people become addicted to drugs, it is extremely difficult to come out. As a society we have still failed to put out proper infrastructure to educate, care for, and treat people to prevent fatal overdoses.

The stigma surrounding drug abuse that people who are addicted have something wrong with them, or that they are “ruined”, is wrong. Drug abuse is not a crime, but it is a disease instead. It is something that can be treated. Instead of arresting people for abusing drugs, we need to treat them with proper treatment. We need to develop the empathy needed to properly care for people abusing drugs.

Treatments such as rehabilitation, drug courts, and other strategies have helped, but there are still many people struggling with drug abuse and these techniques do not work for them as they go into relapse later on. There are better ways to handle this issue.

Other ways to help people struggling with drug abuse is to provide support through family and friends. If a person trying to come off of drug abuse does not have a support line, it can be very hard for them to control themselves.

Another way to help, although it won’t work for everyone, is to change locations. Sometimes, relocating from the place where you experience the struggle is the best solution to starting fresh. Sometimes you can start a better life just by changing scenery. Although this won’t work for everyone, some people can really benefit from this.

One more way to help involves having many resources. Depending on the city’s budget, assigning certain law enforcement members to monitor drug abuse networks throughout the city is helpful as well. Sometimes following one drug addict can lead to finding an entire network of drug dealing, whether it is a dealer, or even a pharmacist or a doctor. Searching through various networks will help in reducing the source through which people get these drugs that continue to harm them.

These are all effective solutions, but the only way to apply them is if we all, as a society, agreed to focus on this widespread issue affecting millions of people in the US each day.

The drug overdose epidemic is a problem that must be fixed. We have not looked at it the right way. Instead of prison, we must move to effective care. That’s the best way to care for people dealing with drug abuse, especially during the Coronavirus pandemic, as we have seen overdose deaths dramatically increase.