The REAL Victims of the Opiate Crisis
It’s easy to feel bad for addicts. The casual observer sees the addict struggle through their daily lives having to mindlessly consume mass quantities of toxic substances in order to function with any semblance of normalcy. They see the addict shivering in the cold with chapped lips, unwashed hair, and 2-week-old clothes, begging for change to get their next fix. And they also hear of addicts dying, only to be found overdosed in an abandoned house; their clothes and shoes stolen. It’s hard not to think that the addict was someone’s son, someone’s daughter. Or even someone’s mother or father. Addiction is a sad, lonely place but, to some degree, the addict chose that life. Maybe they didn’t choose to become addicted and destroy everyone and everything around them, but they DID choose to take that first hit, knowing the risks involved. But as bad as we can feel for the suffering addict, they aren’t the only victims of addiction.
Just like the AIDS crisis, opiates have killed thousands upon thousands of people. In 2016 alone over 63,000 people died as a result of drug use. And just like the AIDS epidemic, collateral damage was strewn everywhere. Close to half of the overdose deaths were among people between 25 and 44 years old, which makes it probable that some of them were parents. And with the drug problem in full-swing, while some of us are sitting here feeling badly for the addicts and the lives they lead, many of us fail to understand the trauma a child experiences when having to call 911 because their mom stopped breathing on the couch. And no one stops to think about the psychological impact a father OD’ing on a public transit bus has on his 10-year-old. We’ve all seen the viral videos online of people overdosing in public and their child slapping them, screaming “mommy wake up!” The children here are the real victims of our massive drug problem. And they’re innocent victims, at that. They didn’t do anything to deserve that. Babies are born addicted to opiates everyday and have to endure drug withdrawals within minutes of being brought into the world. Toddlers risk accidentally getting drugs in their mouths or inhaling them. And when the parents can’t take care of them anymore, 12-year-old children take on the role of caretaker and parent for their younger siblings and in some instances, even become parents to their mom or dad. Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on how you look at it) many of these children wind up being taken from their addicted parents and placed with other family members and sometimes end up in foster care. And what becomes of the families who have to bury their children due to their addictions?
Just like the HIV/AIDS epidemic, we have limited funding and resources to help fight the problem, but the fact remains, we must fight it and continue trying to get a grip on this growing problem. Addicts are not victims. Either way you look at it, they chose to take that first drug. No one shoved the pills down their throats. We need to really pay homage to the real victims here. And the way to minimize the damage scattered all around an addict like shrapnel, we must handle the addict and handle their addiction. Then, people will cease to be needlessly victimized by the addict’s behavior.
Sources Used:
https://www.statnews.com/2018/01/02/opioid-epidemic-impact-children/
