FEATURE
THE
Overdose
EVENT By David A. Kostival
8
THE RESPONSE // WINTER 2021
A
s we appear to be in the waning stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, drug abuse and overdose-related deaths continue to rise at alarming rates on both the local and national stages. Every day in Pennsylvania ten people die as a result of some form of substance abuse disorder. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reported that in 2019 close to 50,000 people in the United States died from drug overdoses. And the Center for Disease Control recently released data that pushes drug overdose deaths to over 90,000 in 2020. Upon hearing drug overdose statistics, victims receive very little empathy from those in the general public who don’t understand the nature of the problem. Prescription opioids are especially dangerous. According to the pa.gov website, long-term dependence on a prescription opioid becomes a very real possibility after only five days of use. That means the problem could become a reality for just about anybody being treated for serious pain. As a result, abuse of opioid drugs has been on the rise since the 1990s when healthcare providers began to prescribe opioid pain relievers at an increasing rate.
