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In America we are facing an opioid crisis and now tens of thousands are dying every year from opioid overdose. 72,000 people are dying in total from drug overdoses in America every year and more than half of those at 49,000 are opioid overdoses. Some people are prescribed opioids because they need them, but many have abused these drugs. There are addictive natures to these drugs and many have become addicted when they started taking the drugs to help with pain. It is important to be aware of this and be monitored if you do have to take opioids so that you can keep from becoming addicted. There is a total of 200 drug overdoses every day and to put it in another perspective it is one person dying every eight minutes.
The U.S. Senate just voted on a bill that passed 98 to 1 and is now on its way to President Donald Trump. Reported by The Hill, “The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill aimed at fighting the opioid crisis, sending the measure to President Trump’s desk. The 660-page bill includes a range of measures aimed at fighting the opioid addiction crisis. The legislation lifts some limits, which lawmakers called outdated, on Medicaid paying for care at addiction treatment facilities. It cracks down on illicit opioids being imported by mail from other countries and fueling the epidemic. The legislation also lifts limits on nurse practitioners and other providers being able to prescribe the addiction treatment drug buprenorphine. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday said the bill is “set to deliver major relief to the American communities that have been decimated by the scourge of substance abuse and addiction.” He called the bill “a landmark package that will deliver critical resources to establish opioid-specific recovery centers and equip local medical practitioners.”
Imagine that you raise your son up and he goes to college to gain the knowledge he wanted for his career, but you get a phone call that he died from a drug overdose. This happened to a former newscaster for Fox News, Eric Bolling and he shares this tragic story. “I am here to talk about the opioid crisis and how it affected my family. My son was a very, very social high schooler, grew up in New Jersey just outside of New York City. He liked to have fun, he was a normal kid, loved baseball, loved his car. He went to the University of Colorado, he had a fantastic freshman year at University of Colorado.”
Eric says that they had dinner and were driving home when they received a phone call. It was late at night when he answered the phone, “It was a young man and he was panicked.” This young man said for him to call Kayla. “She answered her phone and she was crying, for some reason my mind went to this as a parent, I said Kayla is he alive? And she said no there’s a detective in his apartment. The first week into his sophomore year Eric Chase died of an opioid overdose. At that moment my wife who is in the driver’s seat where we had pulled over to the side of the road. She literally fell into the road and I had to gather her up and we sat on the curb for about an hour, crying, talking, trying to figure out what just happened. We never saw it coming, we never thought we would get that call. Every parent doesn’t want it, we got it.” He tries not to cry as he said that.
“So afterwards your mind tries to figure out what happened, what went wrong. Is it something we did? It is also coupled with, what are people going to think…it sounds shallow but that is really some of the things that go through your mind.”
He continues, “There is one underlying issue that I think parents need to understand and it is very very important…not my kid syndrome. Not my kid syndrome is terrible, not my kid syndrome is a killer because you just don’t know. It could very well be your kid…do your children a favor and have the discussion with them and do it again and again and get involved in your kids lives. Find out who they are talking to and who they are hanging around with. Keep an eye on what they are spending and where they are spending it. It matters, you can save someone.”
Maybe you have gone through this your self or you are worried about someone who is addicted to opioids. We are praying for you! America is committed to do something about this crisis. President Trump remarks on this commitment. “For generations the American dream was built on the idea that our children will live longer and more prosperous lives than ever before. Tragically for many of our fellow citizens the opioid crisis has replaced the American dream with the nightmare of addiction. A terrible terrible situation. Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. Every day about 175 Americans die of drug overdose and the majority of these deaths are caused by opioids. That is what my administration has declared the opioid crisis a national public health emergency. The opioid epidemic is truly the crisis next door…working together we will defeat the opioid epidemic and overcome the crisis next door.” He invites you to visit The Crisis Next Door and share you story if you have been affected by opioids and you can also read other stories.
We now have a leader who says we are going to stop this crisis! Your vote is important to make sure this change takes place. You can find out more here about the candidates that are running in your state. We want to hear from you, have you been affected by the opioid crisis? You can write to us at [email protected]. Greg and John shared in this segment.
Courtesy of storyblocks.com
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