FURTHER THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE OPIOID CRISIS

Interested in the opioid crisis?  This blog has addressed this tragic calamity facing the nation in past postings.  This posting can list the titles (and dates) of previous postings that have highlighted this topic, but can more efficiently draw the reader’s attention to an online site in which this blogger has listed, in the form of factoids and insights, useful information concerning this epidemic.  That site’s URL is https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=CED163627385DD3C!11635&ithint=file%2cdocx&app=Word&authkey=!AFhwqIF3ZhONVK8 .

          That site not only has information regarding the various types of opioids but also information regarding different related aspects of its sell and distribution including governmental reactions to the problem.  The individual bits of information are sourced so the reader can further investigate the information.

          This posting aims to add to those listings and it uses a recurring source the above site uses.  That source is Beth Macy’s book, Dopesick:  Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America.[1]  This more recent book serves as a good follow up to Sam Quinones’ book, Dreamland:  The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic.[2]  Both are “good reads” and they do an effective job at humanizing this plague on the nation.  They also portray how this drug abuse exposes the lack of a federalist mindset among Americans – a mindset that prevailed before World War II.

But before sharing the factoids and insights, a word on why this format is used is helpful.  Earlier in this blog, several postings make the case that a main instructional strategy this blog supports is an approach it calls historical dialogue-to-action (HD-to-A).[3]  As its title indicates, discourse plays a central role.  Beyond that, the approach commits a teacher to spend time developing students’ abilities to utilize logical arguments in that discourse. 

In turn, the approach relies on Stephen Toulmin’s logical model of argumentation.[4]  In that model, the function of factoids (called datum statements) and insights (called warrant statements) play crucial functions in the formulation of a logical argument.  Interested readers are directed to yet another former posting, “Toulmin’s Elements of a Logical Argument.”[5] 

With that context here is this posting’s list of factoids and insights – they are identified as examples of each type of statement.

Factoid:  A more recent type of opioid has been found among the public.  That is carfentanil.  Macy reports that it was originally developed as a sedative for elephants.  It is one hundred times stronger than the strong opioid, fentanyl, which, in turn, is 25 to 50 times stronger than heroin.

Factoid:  The state of West Virginia – through its burial-assistance program – was at the time of a cited report running out of funds dedicated to burying opioid victims.  West Virginia is not alone in this problem; similar reports come from a variety of states from Florida to California.  Generally, the epidemic moved from rural areas to urban areas.  Of special interest is the urban corridor between Baltimore and New York City.

Factoid:  Macy judges the nation’s response to the epidemic to be very slow and very impotent once it began.

Insight:  Unlike the spread of other drug consumption patterns, the opioid problem started in isolated areas such the Appalachian area or the Midwestern rust belt region.  This is attributed, at least in part, to the downward trends the local economies of those areas experienced especially after the introduction of competition from low income countries from around the world.  Not only were the economies of these areas under stress, but they were already known to be politically powerless areas that lacked appropriate medical facilities to meet the crisis.

Insight:  Also adding a causal effect to an overall lack of a reaction to the epidemic was the “stigma and shame” one attaches to the resulting addiction.  People and families affected were highly reluctant to come forward and let their problem be known.

Insight:  “Because the most important thing for the morphine-hijacked brain is, always, not to experience the crushing physical and psychological pain of withdrawal:  to avoid dopesickness at any cost.  [This leads to] … many users recruit[ing] new customers. … [creating a cycle, which] too often ends in jail or prison or worse …”[6]

          These factoids and insights will be added to the online site.

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[1] Beth Macy, Dopesick:  Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America (New York, NY:  Riverhead Books, 2018).  In terms of Macy’s book, this posting is not the first time this blog has cast an eye on it.  For example, the posting, “More Information on Opioid Crisis,” was posted on July 23, 2019.  See Robert Gutierrez, “More Information on Opioid Crisis,” Gravitas:  A Voice for Civics, July 23, 2013, accessed February 13, 2020, https://gravitascivics.blogspot.com/2019/07/more-information-on-opioid-crisis.html .

[2] Sam Quinones, Dreamland:  The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic (New York, NY:  Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015).

[3] Robert Gutierrez, “Turning to Action – A Model,” Gravitas:  A Voice for Civics, March 5, 2019, accessed February 13, 2020, https://gravitascivics.blogspot.com/2019/03/turning-to-action-model.html .

[4] Stephen Toulmin, The Uses of Argument (London:  Cambridge University Press, 1969).

[5] Robert Gutierrez, “Toulmin’s Elements of a Logical Argument,” Gravitas:  A Voice for Civics, August 22, 2017, accessed February 13, 2020, https://gravitascivics.blogspot.com/2017/08/toulmins-elements-of-logical-argument.html .

[6] Beth Macy, Dopesick, 9.