A bit of background on the opioid crisis

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) is a great source of information.  A recent report (see link here) outlines how misuse of opioids has evolved over the past decade:


While a disproportionate focus has been on prescription opioids, prescriptions of opioids actually reached their peak in 2010 and have been on the decline ever since. The “crisis” has long since been a problem of heroin and fentanyl, with predictably tragic outcomes.  “The opioid overdose epidemic in the United States continues to worsen,” declares a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The report notes that drug overdose deaths rose from 52,404 in 2015 to 63,632 in 2016.  Two-thirds of overdose deaths in 2016 involved an opioid of some sort, with 19,413 involving a synthetic opioid like fentanyl, 17,087 involving a prescription opioid and 15,469 involving heroin. It’s important to note that opioid overdoses commonly involve multiple drugs.
The report explains that the opioid overdose problem has come in three waves. The first began in the 1990s as prescription opioids surged in popularity, the second began in 2010 and involved increases in heroin-related deaths and the third started in 2013 with the growing presence of fentanyl and fentanyl analogues in heroin.


So why do addicts use fentanyl when it can so easily kill them?  Consumer choice theory helps us understand.  (see here).

The short answer is that as people who use drugs have moved from opioid painkillers to seek out more potent, cheaper drugs, there has been a destructive race to find the most affordable high. Fentanyl, as a drug that’s relatively easy to produce for a better, cheaper high per dose than heroin, has become the natural destination for traffickers and users who want the strongest products.

This also offers a stark warning about the opioid epidemic: When it comes to cracking down on opioids, just going after the drug’s supply isn’t enough. If you go after opioid painkillers, people will eventually go to heroin. If you go after heroin, they’ll eventually go to fentanyl. And if you go after fentanyl, they might resort to some of its analogs, like carfentanil. This drug crisis, then, likely requires a response that also tackles the existing demand for these drugs, particularly through new forms of drug prevention and treatment that can get people off these dangerous substances altogether.

Why would someone choose to be addicted?  In the video that we watched last night, we saw that several family members might be addicts.  Why?