There is a deadly epidemic that has been quietly sweeping across America for the last several years. Its grip is so strong and tenacious that once the unsuspecting person is hooked, it almost always ends in tragedy. The problem has become so serious that even the media, law enforcement and state governors have taken notice.
The name of this deadly epidemic is opioid addiction.
The reason why most people are unsuspecting is because they are given an opiate prescription by someone they trust, usually by a family doctor, a surgeon, or even a dentist! They do not realize that continued use of these drugs leads to dependence, and then addiction. By the time the doctor will no longer write the prescription, it is too late for the patient. They have already become firmly addicted. Desperate for this opioid, which is really a form of heroin, they turn to the drug dealer on the street. Unfortunately, more and more of these illicit opioids are tainted with deadly substances that result in overdosing and end in death. Over 80% of heroin addicts have become addicted by using opioid prescriptions!
The facts and numbers are absolutely staggering. Over 2.5 million Americans are now addicted to heroin, and the number is swiftly rising. From 1999 to 2015, the number of deadly overdoses has risen from 8,200 to over 33,000 a year! It is so common for a dentist to prescribe an opiate prescription after removing a wisdom tooth that there are now over 100 million opioid tablets in circulation. And that’s just for a wisdom tooth removal! Multiply that by the many knee and back surgeries, and you can begin to see how huge the problem really is. In many states, more young people die from overdosing than from car crashes.
How We Entered the Crisis
Since morphine is so highly addictive, scientists developed heroin in 1874 as an alternative painkilling drug. Not realizing just how addictive heroin is, doctors prescribed it with abandon for every ache and pain, and Bayer even sold it over the counter as a cough suppressant! Soon, the inevitable happened: People looking for pain relief became drug addicts, resulting in broken families and death by overdosing. Congress, realizing the seriousness of the problem, took action and passed the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act in 1914, which was signed into law by Woodrow Wilson. This law threatened doctors with jail time if they prescribed opioids to an addict. For many years, this law controlled the problem.
But a century later, both laws and attitudes have changed. Powerful drug companies determinedly lobbied Congress and doctors in an effort to spike their profits. Synthetic heroin is now subsidized through Medicaid and the VA. Sure enough, the pharmaceutical companies made millions. A whole generation of doctors was raised with the idea that people deserved the right to opioids if they were in any kind of pain. And sure enough, the epidemic of a century ago is being played out again, with the same disastrous results.
Research by the Star-Ledger, a New Jersey newspaper, found that fentanyl-linked deaths in the state skyrocketed from 42 to 417 between 2013 and 2015!
Another Epidemic
Sin is just like an opioid. At first, it can seem very appealing and even necessary. But slowly, over time, it gets a powerful grip on us, trapping us in its deadly vice. Greed, lust, pride, lying and bitterness are just a few of the sins that can seem quite small, but are really powerful and deadly. Once firmly ensnared in their grip, it is impossible to escape on our own. God calls this being “hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:1313But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:13)). We need help outside of ourselves. In fact, the situation is so desperate that God says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart” (Jeremiah 17:9-109The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (Jeremiah 17:9‑10)). Sin is so deceitful that many people think that they can control it, or at the very least balance it out with good works. But sadly even our “good works” are sin in God’s sight, for He clearly states, “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses [good works] are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities [sins], like the wind, have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)).
Jeff, an opioid addict himself, told his story to a worldwide audience. He had been in a car crash in 2006, which resulted in a serious and painful back injury. A trusted family orthopedic doctor gave him Oxycodone, which is synthetic heroin, which he became addicted to. At first, opioids kill pain, which is why they are a blessing to cancer patients and are used in end-of-life situations. But continued use too often leads to addiction and death. Jeff had been on opioids for 10 years and had tried to go off them three times. He had been free of it for 60, even 90 days, and then his back pain got to be too much. That’s when he took the lowest dose of Oxycodone — and within a month, he was up to the highest dosage that he had been on before. When he was interviewed, he was on methadone — another opioid — taking increasingly lower doses, trying to get off opioids altogether. When asked the question, “Do you think you’ll ever get off of it?” his response was sad and hopeless. “Umm, I do not know. I honestly do not know at this point.”
Freedom
Many people have gotten free of opioid addiction. Just as the opioid addict needs help and healing, so does every man, woman and child in this world. We are all born under the unrelenting grip of sin and are powerless to save ourselves. If we continue on in our sins, it will surely end in our eternal death. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)), BUT, wait — there is wonderful news for helpless sinners — ”but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)). “Gift of God” and “eternal life” — how can this be? Because “when we were yet without strength ... Christ died for the ungodly. But God commendeth [makes known] His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6,86For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)
8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)). How do we receive the “gift of God”? The answer is given in Acts 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Once you have accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior, ask Him to help you to live for Him and to make your trust in Him known to others. Romans 10:9,9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9) which is another wonderful verse to know, reads, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” “Thou shalt be saved” is an unbreakable promise from God when we personally accept His gift of salvation.
Staten Island has seen a dramatic rise in accidental opioid overdoses. One funeral home director, Kevin Moran, has become a spokesman against opioid abuse. He shows young people a pile of death certificates of young lives that have been cut short by an accidental overdose. “Most of the children who have ‘passed’ started on opioids after being in a car accident or getting a sports injury and were prescribed painkillers by a doctor and got hooked,” Moran says. He further states, “It could be the wealthiest kid and the poorest kid, and the drugs don’t care.”
Many states, acknowledging the opioid epidemic sweeping through the country, are trying to stem the flow of opioid prescriptions. New Jersey’s attorney general stated, “We are very much at war here.” An illicit pill could be laced with fentanyl or even carfentanyl, an opioid strong enough to bring down an elephant! Yet people are so desperate for these opioids that they risk their lives by going to the drug dealer. “It’s a game of Russian roulette any time you take any type of drug on the street,” Deborah Cole, a forensic scientist, says. “They are ... from a drug dealer who only wants to make money. He doesn’t care about you.”
In order to control the problem, New Jersey has passed laws regarding the distribution of opioid prescriptions. Doctors are only allowed to write a prescription for five days for first-time users, with strict guidelines for continued use. Unscrupulous doctors who over-prescribe opioids can be severely penalized, losing their license and even facing up to 20 years in jail. In 2016, in New Jersey, a record 31 doctors were disciplined for allegedly over-prescribing painkillers. It is hoped that these measures will stem the tide of opioid pills on the market and, in the end, save many lives.
There are those who are sounding a faithful warning against opioid abuse. It is the same with those of us who know the Lord as our own personal Savior. We are told to sound a faithful warning to you against dying with your sins unforgiven. “[Jesus] said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel unto every creature. He that believeth ... shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:15-1615And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. (Mark 16:15‑16)). The stakes are high; the consequences are dire. What will your choice be?
Painkillers have their hidden, addictive hook. Credit has a “catch” too. But there’s an even more subtle and deadly “catch” than credit has to offer. Read more in The Catch.