Is The Developed World loosing hope for a solution to the Opioid Crisis?

Its unfortunate that the opioids are creating a serious menace in our modern society, my condolences to the families that have lost their loved ones, its shocking the way this critical situation has hit us with such speed and fury, everyone was caught off-guard, Government agencies, NGOs, the health institutes, law enforcement and the victims were all caught by surprise, no one ever saw it coming.

Now that this “hungry devil” is here, what should we do about it? We need to all unite to come up with a long term solution,

The emergence of Opioids is by no means came as a great shock to the world, with their devastating effects, its hard to tell the exact number of victims they are soon going to claim, they could be numbering in their millions.

Opioids unlike old hardcore drugs like Cocaine and Heroine, are legal drugs and you will find them in many pharmacies. this type of weird existence complicates the matter even further.

Hard drugs such as cocaine, heroine, marijuana etc. can simply be banned by the state and forced into the underground, Opioids have on one hand Medicinal value while on the other hand have serious destructive effects even with the slightest levels of overdose.

“If its apparent there are pharmaceutical firms backing these so called medicines, companies that continue fighting everyone who poses a threat to their businesses, they intimidate the law enforcement officers, the media and families of victims that have succumbed to the deadly pill, if these wicked pills are causing so much problems for the society, why not simply ban them altogether?” The public may ask, well its not that easy, the relations between pharma giants and the state is a very complex and malicious one, its quiet hard to put a pharmaceutical company out of business.

The world doesn’t need  any more hardcore drugs, we are already troubled with all the violence associated with underground drug trafficking, with huge parts of the world especially South America turned into ganglands as a result of drugs and drug related businesses, hundreds of thousands have been butchered by violent gangs in the last few years alone, many have been innocent people who were caught in the crossfires between gang wars, others lost their lives after getting into the way of the gangs, both the law enforcement officers and civilians alike fell to their brutal hammer, politicians who tried to stem the activities of the drug gangs ended up paying with their own lives. The gangs have a strong socio-economic influence on the societies, they hold the government agencies and locals  with a firm grip. They way a predator dig its claws into the flesh of a prey preventing all attempts of escape. Only in South America is it a common trend to witness  politicians get assassinated in broad daylight, brutal killings that are of course sponsored by the drug lords. The governments of the world, including the most powerful ones have failed to stem illegal drug trade, it’s a menace that continues to beat them hands down.

The Opioids come with a different face, its like a grim reaper, an angel of death, coming to you dressed in a bright white  robes with a halo on its head, it gives you false claims that he only wants to help you to recover from your cold and flu, but his real intentions are to kill and to destroy, that’s all it knows to do, with all the façade and positive public image they put up, Opioids will never have any positive impact on the society, never in my lifetime, even if the State makes a complete U-turn and bans them from use, they will simply go underground and continue to work far away from public view just the way the other illegal drugs have been eluding the authorities.

There was a time when the society had stereotypes and negative perceptions about drugs and drug abuse. They used to say that those who abused drugs were the lowlife, very wicked and immoral people especially from poverty stricken neighborhoods, were the ones associated with this social ill, now it’s the dev** himself that has come to us in the garments of an Arch Angel and is able to fool everyone including the very smart and the wealthy, this is no longer a problem of the immoral poor members of the local community but also for the wise rich members of the society. This case is a bit different and shall have more casualties, because its through your own doctors, the people whom you have bestowed upon all your trust  to take care of your health and well-being , the people whom you heed their every instruction without questioning. The people loosing their lives now are innocent folk who think they are curing their unbearable medical condition, not the troubled and stressed out folk who are trying to forget their  misery by taking recreational drugs, that’s not the case anymore.

In my youth I had tried out a few illegal drugs, I started experimenting with drugs as a way of overcoming stress and workload at school. Peer pressure was a big contributor as well, first I started rolling up paper and smoking it, then I moved on to the real thing which is tobacco, then Marijuana, after that, I started experimenting with alcohol and crack, soon my life was spiraling out of control. I was barely in my teens back then, fortunately my parents especially my mother got wind of it, they urgently took action to save my life and carried me off to get the right help, after the rehab, I got lots of spiritual support from my local church as well, they never judged me, they helped me in every way they could, my parents became more interactive, less stricter, more understanding and the love between us grew warmer, without their love and support I probably could have continued to spiral deeper and deeper into the black hole, with little to no hope of Salvation. So at times People abusing hardcore drugs need lots and lots of social support, drug users need spiritual support as well.

I have had a little bit of taste of this kind of life in childhood, so for the countless lives that are lost everyday due to wrong prescription pills, I pretty much understand their situation, though there is no social stigma tied to their passing, the pain of loss is still the same, there is nothing heartbreaking as losing a loved one, the person you have bonded with for such a long time, their memories can never leave you no matter what.

Drug users in the crime ridden neighborhoods on the other hand faced a lot of social stigma, so much that no sooner had you laid your loved one to rest do people start talking, some people even go to the extremes of insulting you to your face, the bereaving family members  start being called “drug family,” lowly addicts and all sorts of horrible painful names, without the second thought of effects such words may negatively impact the living members.

Now that the seemingly innocent prescription Pills are taking innocent lives, the world is going to have a different take on drugs and drug abuse as a whole.