Opioid Addiction: Analyzing a Community Health Crisis Report

This report analyzes the growing problem of opioid addiction within a specific community, likely focusing on the author's observations as a pharmacy worker. The report details the increasing demand for opioid prescriptions, highlighting the issue of addiction and dependency. It explores the demographics of those affected, primarily young adults, and the impact on their lives, including employment, security, and involvement in community activities. The author discusses the availability of these drugs, potential contributing factors to addiction, and the lack of effective public health information. The report also touches upon the role of doctors and pharmacists, the symptoms of addiction, and the challenges of relapse. It concludes by emphasizing the need for immediate action from governmental and non-governmental organizations to address this community health crisis. The report provides references to support the analysis.

Running head: OPIOID ADDICTION 1
Opioid Addiction
Name of Author
Institution of Affiliation
Date of Submission

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Opioid Addiction
I work at the pharmacy where I meet many patients who want opioid drugs prescription.
This happens almost every day whereby I have to some about ten clients for opioid drug
prescription. Some of these people need the medication for the management of their illness but
many of them use them because of the addiction they have with the opioid. Convalescents come
to us pharmacists when they are not getting their monthly opioid refill. We request the doctors to
give us the refills but they decline whereas when patients call or go to the doctor’s office, they
are eventually given the monthly refill of the opioid drug. I think this is the same when you go to
other pharmacies and hospitals thus a very serious issue facing my community. This essay
analysis opioid addiction as a serious issue that is negatively affecting my community.
Opioid addiction has been on the rise within the community with little or no information
on the public health system. The correct prescription of opioids is to treat pain. Pain can be
prolonged in some cases but the majority of the community members tend to continue with the
drug that results in addiction and dependency on it. The majority of addicts range between the
age of 19 - 35 years old which we can generalize to youths (Leung et al., 2017). This situation
has greatly affected the output of the youths towards the security, social activities and the
economy of the community and the nation at large. Today we have quite some individuals who
have resigned from various positions in various organizations as a result of this drug.
Availability and access to these drugs are questionable as few pharmacists have noted on the
increasing demand while some find a boom in their business. Youths who consume these drugs
tend to idle around the community with little or no input towards any community project or
service. Insecurity and crime become the order of the day as they chose not to work but steal to

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sustain their dependency (Kolodny et al., 2015). The youths who consume these drugs without
the doctor’s prescription find it like a stimulant, it energies one. During the intake of the drug,
most of them prefer it more compared to alcohol or cigarettes because it has no smell that one
can notice hence the most preferred drug due to its nature and availability (Hser et al., 2015).
According to research, opioid addiction has got no pattern to addiction but majorly
focuses on family members who have an addiction with other substances, the lifestyle of
individuals within a given set of community or no genetic factors that are shared among the
family members. Opioid addiction can be a result of our many genes within the body of every
individual that when triggered they can result in dependence leading one to addiction (Weiss et
al., 2015).
Choosing Your Audience
The youths living within the community both employed, self-employed and unemployed
are the main audience in this research. Both doctors and pharmacist-owners are also going to
play a major role in dispensing information in regards to the availability of the drugs and how it
has shaped the community at large.
Potential
Audience
Youths Doctors Owner
Characteristics/
Values/Beliefs
Employed, Unemployed.
It clears away stress.
Private, employed.
We can/can’t
confirm.
We are presented with
doctor’s prescription
Genre Formal/friendly E-mail/ memos Formal calls/letters
Style/Tone Friendly/ Conversational Professional Formal

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Multimodal
Element
Images, charts, journals Links Formal graphs and
research journals
The drugs are administered to youths through unscrupulous traders who have opened up
unlicensed pharmacies within our local community; most of its employees are qualified sales
executive people hence their major focus is to reach the said target by their employers in terms of
sales. Youth, on the other hand, find it very hard for them to attain a certain position within our
government thus advocating for anything that comes along their way, as a result, most of them
end up on doing drugs and other substances.
The opioid is not a disease but a condition that can be controlled by self-withdrawal or by
discontinuing the drug. Its major symptoms include lack of good hygiene within the community,
uncontrollable cravings, weight loss, and frequent flu-like symptoms. Sleeping habits and change
in exercise habits is a major factor in the use of opioids among youths (Volkow & McLellan,
2016). However, to some people, opioids make pleasurable effects and some people don’t like
the effects and may go on to avoid it. If you take opioids and the pain is gone and you say “I am
feeling good” you might be vulnerable to miss using the drug.
It takes a couple of weeks for some people to become physically dependent on opioids
and doctors do recommend them for pain relief. However, some studies have shown that with a
single dose one is likely to be addicted depending on the immune system (Kiani et al., 2019).
Doctors don’t find opioids drugs as risk as we find it on the ground because they believe that
upon the description, a

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patient would adhere to the instruction given to them hence not becoming a risk. The biological
concept of the drug use by the doctors is that the drug can restrict the ability to breath when
taken on a higher dose and when misused can lead to a fatal overdose (Gowing, Ali & White,
2017).
Opioid addiction is not the only drug that is misused within the community setting but it
goes along with other drugs like heroin, bhang, and so many others. Injectable opioids are not
common to us to our pharmacy’s and more people often prefer to oral opioids. In my community
set up, opioid was discovered a couple of years back by a patient who was seriously hurt by a
machine and he chose by himself to take more than required dose of painkiller something that
went well with him (Scholl et al., 2019). This was further shared among friends whom some
gave a trial and the effect was of mixed opinion as some embraced it while others didn’t like it
all.
Relapse is commonly associated with detoxification of opioids therefore it’s not used
often as medication to curb the addiction but it’s one of the first steps one needs to work on. In
my community, some rehabilitation centers have been overcome by opioids addicts because of
how dependent they have become. This has greatly affected the community and adequate
measures need to be addressed with immediate action to save our future. None governmental
organization is up to tusk to curb the menace with support from the local people and the
government at large (Schuckit, 2016). There is no single treatment that has been established to be
a cure for opioid addiction within my community.

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Reference
Gowing, L., Ali, R., & White, J. M. (2017). Opioid antagonists with minimal sedation for opioid
withdrawal. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (5).
Hser, Y. I., Evans, E., Grella, C., Ling, W., & Anglin, D. (2015). Long-term course of opioid
addiction. Harvard review of psychiatry, 23(2), 76-89.
Leung, P. T., Macdonald, E. M., Stanbrook, M. B., Dhalla, I. A., & Juurlink, D. N. (2017). A
1980 letter on the risk of opioid addiction. New England Journal of Medicine, 376(22),
2194-2195.
Kiani, M. J. E., Muhsin, B., Al-Ali, A., Indorf, K. W., Ahmed, O., Novak, J., & Weber, W. M.
(2019). U.S. Patent Application No. 16/432,765.
Kolodny, A., Courtwright, D. T., Hwang, C. S., Kreiner, P., Eadie, J. L., Clark, T. W., &
Alexander, G. C. (2015). The prescription opioid and heroin crisis: a public health
approach to an epidemic of addiction. Annual review of public health, 36, 559-574.
Schuckit, M. A. (2016). Treatment of opioid-use disorders. New England Journal of
Medicine, 375(4), 357-368.
Scholl, L., Seth, P., Kariisa, M., Wilson, N., & Baldwin, G. (2019). Drug and opioid-involved
overdose deaths—United States, 2013–2017. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly
Report, 67(5152), 1419.
Volkow, N. D., & McLellan, A. T. (2016). Opioid abuse in chronic pain—misconceptions and
mitigation strategies. New England Journal of Medicine, 374(13), 1253-1263.
Weiss, R. D., Potter, J. S., Griffin, M. L., Provost, S. E., Fitzmaurice, G. M., McDermott, K. A.,
& Carroll, K. M. (2015). Long-term outcomes from the national drug abuse treatment

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clinical trials network prescription opioid addiction treatment study. Drug and alcohol
dependence, 150, 112-119.