'60 Minutes' Story on Opioid and Heroin Addiction

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Opioids are destroying the lives of tens of thousands of Americans every year. They are highly addictive and the "pushers" are the patients' own doctors. When the doctors stop giving these addictive painkillers to their patients, the patients often turn to heroin. I wrote an article about this for my retirement blog. Among the things I learned was that this is not just a problem for teens and people in their early twenties. FOUR TIMES as many people between the ages of 45 and 54 die from opioid overdoses than people in their teens or twenties. Older people may even be dying from opioids at a higher rate than that, because when people with multiple illnesses die, it is often attributed to natural causes, when it may have been an opioid overdose death. On "60 Minutes" this evening, they did a story about it. They focused on the small town of Piketon, Ohio. In Ohio, about 23 people a WEEK die of heroin overdoses. Today, 80% of the people who become new heroin addicts begin their addiction after transitioning from an opioid addiction. On the "60 Minutes" story, they showed how in Ohio, rather than sending all the heroin addicts to jail, they are sometimes being sent to drug court, which monitors the addicts as they get off drugs and change their lifestyle. Vivitrol is a new drug that can block the effects of opioids in the system. It is a another good step towards helping these people break the pattern of addiction. On the other hand, some District Attorneys in Ohio (and other states) are coming down hard on drug addicts and sending them to jail ... which is one reason why our jails are overflowing. Treatment and rehab programs are expensive. While there are a few programs, there are not enough beds to meet the demand. Even after a year of sobriety in a treatment program, the odds that an addict will stay sober are only 50/50. I have known people whose lives have been ruined by opioid and other addictions, including one who was a successful attorney until he was given opioids in his 40s after back surgery. Have you known someone like that? What do you think should be done to help these people and society as a whole?