The Impacts of Opioids

It is debatable whether it takes an adolescent less than 7 days, some studies show 5 days, to become Addicted to prescribed pain medication. Whether prescribed legitimately or not.

One Week.

It is reported that 3 out of 5 adolescents that become addicted to pain medication as students will become addicted to Heroin later in life.

In all neighborhoods …. from all families …. from all schools.

Opioids are not merely a gateway to Heroin and other unregulated street drugs but are more accurately described as a precursor.

80% of Heroin users transitioned from prescription Opioids. The step from a legitimate prescription to potential addiction to a traumatic consequence is unfortunately probable.

Addiction, like wildfire, ravages those it entices before it burns lives.

Today Fentanyl, reportedly 50 to 100 times stronger than Heroin, is used to cut every counterfeit street/club drug from Xanax to Vicodin to Cocaine to Heroin.

A few grains of Fentanyl added to a counterfeit Xanax can and will kill.

Recently, Iso is being used to replace Fentanyl. Iso is more potent than Fentanyl and 1,000 times stronger than morphine,

Facts & Statistics

  • OPIOID-related deaths are now responsible for more deaths than Car deaths and Gun deaths as stated in USAFACTS.ORG.

  • 80% of Heroin users have previously abused Prescription Painkillers per USAFACTS.ORG

  • Approximately 42,249 OPIOID Related Deaths in 2016 per National Institute on Drug Abuse

  • Approximately 47,600 OPIOID Related Deaths in 2017 per Center for Disease Control

  • Approximately 47,590 OPIOD Related Deaths in 2018 per CNN.COM

  • Approximately 70,000 Drug overdose deaths in 2019 per National Institute on Drug Abuse.

  • Over 100,000 predicted overdose deaths in 2020 per the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS).

  • It is reported that over 100,000 overdose deaths occurred in 2021 per various news outlets.

  • Emory University Study states 1 in 4 Overdose Deaths occurred in youths under the age of 19.

  • Reports such as The Guardian claim as many as 200 people die per day of OPIOID Overdoses.

  • Isotonitazene commonly referred to as “ISO” is a synthetic version of etonitazene, an opioid that’s been around since 1957.

  • Etonitazene is 1,000 times more powerful than morphine,” Dr. Yili Huang, the director of the pain management center at Northwell Health’s Phelps Hospital in New York, told Healthline. “Although Isotonitazene is less potent than etonitazene that it’s derived from, it’s still more potent than fentanyl.”

  • The best way to think about it is that Isotonitazene is a stronger cousin of fentanyl and therefore likely even more dangerous,” Huang added.

  • The CDC’s National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) provides monthly provisional data on predicted total drug overdose deaths during the preceding 12 months. The most recent data reflect September 2019 through August 2020. During that period, there were 88,295 predicted deaths, a record high that is almost 19,000 more deaths (27%) than the prior 12-month period.

  • Estimates show that total overdose deaths spiked to record levels in March 2020 after the pandemic hit. Monthly deaths grew by about 50 percent between February and May to more than 9,000; they were likely still around 8,000 in August.

  • Opioid-related deaths drove these increases, specifically synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and now ISO. Opioids accounted for around 75 percent of all overdose deaths during the early months of the pandemic; around 80 percent of those included synthetic opioids.

  • The final 2020 total in the United States could exceed 100,000 overdose deaths, compared to 70,630 in 2019. That would not only be the highest annual number on record but the largest single-year percentage increase in the past 20 years.

  • President Biden campaigned on a platform to address the opioid crisis through a public health approach that includes expanding funding and resources, reforming the criminal justice system, increasing insurance coverage, and widening access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and mental health care.

  • The CDC said in December that the rate of overdose deaths was accelerating during the pandemic, driven by synthetic opioids, which rose 38.4% during the year leading up to June 2020.

  • “Social distancing has forced many 12 Step programs, such as Alcoholic Anonymous, to suspend their meetings. The need for an effective treatment for substance abuse has never been greater,” said Linville M. Meadows, M.D., a physician and author on addiction.

  • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the total "economic burden" of prescription opioid misuse alone in the United States is $78.5 billion a year, including the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement. (Florence CS 2016)

  • Preliminary data show that 81,230 overdose deaths occurred in the United States from June 2019 through May 2020, the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period. (CDC 2020)

  • Data shows well over 100,000 deaths in each of 2021 and 2022, increasing year over year.