[Note: This posting is a continuation of a report on
the development of a civics unit of study.
This unit is directing students to formulate informed positions on the
opioid epidemic. Presently, this
development, in real time, is reporting a set of factoids on a mode of
dispensing illicit opioids which is a contributing element of this epidemic.]
Before continuing this
report, this posting adds a few words on the extent of the opioid epidemic in
the US. This epidemic has been
characterized as a crisis. This word was
used by the US Surgeon General as a reaction to the observed over-prescription
of opioid pain pills back in the 1990s.
As early as those years, opioids became the most prescribed type or
class of medications in this country. Over-use,
regardless of whether the user seeks pain relief or to induce euphoric feelings,
is likely to lead to an addiction.[1]
As with other addictive drugs, the over-user
builds a tolerance and, in turn, needs higher doses of the drug to achieve the
intended results. The user becomes dependent
on the drug; further consumption relieves or avoids withdrawal symptoms. Those symptoms are very serious. To begin with, over-use of the various
opiates “changes how brain chemistry work leading to physical and psychological
dependence.”[2]
Dividing
opiates between short acting ones and long acting ones, the onset of symptoms
varies: short-acting ones start within 6
to 12 hours while it takes 30 hours for the longer-acting types. Immediate symptoms are tearing up, muscle
aches, agitation, interrupted sleep routines, excessive yawning, anxiety, nose
running, sweats, racing heart, hypertension, and fever. Longer lasting symptoms (peaking within 72
hours and last for about a week) are nausea, muscle cramping, depression,
agitation, anxiety, and further opiate cravings.[3]
There
have been cases where users intentionally inflict horrendous injuries to
themselves to get prescriptions for more opioids.[4] This, of course, reflects serious
demand. And where there is a demand, a
segment of the population that is willing to buy a product, there will be
suppliers of that product. At times,
that includes illicit products, such as illegal opioids. The prime source of the opiates is Mexico.
There,
the role of drug cartels is central.
They are held responsible for providing a virtual “flood” of these
drugs. Their initial interest was to
significantly increase heroin supplies.
Now, heroin is not a prescribed drug, so why emphasize its export into
the US? It turns out that heroin is
cheaper, more potent, and easier for perspective or established users to
acquire than other – prescribed – opioids.[5] There has been some speculation that the
increase in heroin was due to tightening prescription policies; CDC reports
this is not the case.[6]
Heroin
makes its way into the US from various other nations, but Mexico leads that
list. Between the years 2005-2009, there
has been increased production in Mexico of heroin from 8 metric tons to 50
metric tons, an over 600% increase.[7] Another figure reflecting this increased
traffic of heroin is how much more of the opioid has been seized at the border;
it doubled between 2010 and 2014.[8] With those types of numbers, according to
DEA, it is not hard to believe that profits from this trade has become central
to the fate of Mexican cartels.[9]
Mexican
criminal organizations, primarily the Sinaloa Cartel, makeup the primary traffickers
of the other insidious opioid drug, fentanyl.
By one account, 80 percent of seized fentanyl in New York is linked to
that cartel.[10] And, are the profits these criminal
organizations reeking from Americans all due to irresponsible behaviors on the
part of those Americans? The next
posting will address this question.
[1] Jacqueline
Howard, “Why Opioid Overdose Deaths Seem to Happen in Spurts,” CNN, February 8,
2017, accessed July 11, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/08/health/opioids-overdose-deaths-epidemic-explainer/
.
[2] “Opiate
Withdrawal Timelines, Symptoms and Treatment,” American Addiction Centers,
n.d., accessed July 11, 2018, https://americanaddictioncenters.org/withdrawal-timelines-treatments/opiate/
.
[3] Ibid.
[4] The
writer has seen these ads on TV.
[5] Dan
Nolan and Chris Amico, “How Bad Is the Opioid Epidemic?” Frontline, February 23,
2016, accessed July 12, 2018, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/how-bad-is-the-opioid-epidemic/
.
[6] Abby
Goodnough, “Opioid Prescriptions Fall after 2010 Peak, C. D. C. Report Finds,” The New York Times, July 6, 2017, accessed
July 12, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/health/opioid-painkillers-prescriptions-united-states.html?ribbon-ad-idx=5&rref=us&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=U.S.&pgtype=article
.
[7] Dan
Nolan and Chris Amico, “How Bad Is the Opioid Epidemic?”
[8] Clare
Ribando Seelke and Liana W. Rosen, “Heroin Production in Mexico and U. S.
Policy,” CRS Insight, March 3, 2016, accessed July 12, 2018, https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/IN10456.pdf
.
[9] “2015
National Drug Threat Assessment Summary,” Drug Enforcement Administration,
October 2015, https://www.dea.gov/docs/2015%20NDTA%20Report.pdf
.
[10] Joel
Achenbach, “Wave of Addiction Linked to Fentanyl Worsens As Drugs,
Distribution, Evolve,” The Washington Post, October 24, 2017, accessed July 12,
2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/wave-of-addiction-linked-to-fentanyl-worsens-as-drugs-distribution-evolve/2017/10/24/5bedbcf0-9c97-11e7-8ea1-ed975285475e_story.html?utm_term=.15ed0524413b
AND Nick Miroff, “Mexican Traffickers Making New York a Hub for Lucrative – and
Deadly – Fentanyl,” The Washington Post, November 13, 2017.
