Last year was the first year since 1999 that the overdose statistics slightly dropped. Since big pharma unleashed hell on this nation in the late 90's over 450,000 of our citizens have died from an opioid overdose.
The cost of this chaos is 681 billion dollars, and that's just from 2015 to 2018.
The statistics don't really exist, but the number of overdoses and the number of overdose deaths are a very different number.
The stats for overdose deaths are just the people that unfortunately passed away from a drug overdose, but thousands and thousands more have been saved from the drug Narcan. Narcan is a nasal spray that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.
The pharmaceutical companies on both sides of the crisis are making endless amounts of money, "sales of naloxone have increased from $21.3 million in 2011 to $60.8 million in 2014 to $274.1 million in 2016." That number is a drop in the bucket in comparison to the 4yr payout from taxpayers who paid 681 billion dollars from 2015-2018 towards this drug crisis.
We as Americans lead the way for opioid consumption. America's population of roughly 329 million people puts us at about 4.7% of the worlds population, and our 4.7% of the worlds population is consuming 80% of the worlds opioids. Yes, you read that right! "The Land of the Free" is far from free.
With this massive issue put into big picture perspective, let me ask a question. How hard is it to love your neighbor, and how much does that cost?
How much does it cost for us to stop being intimidated by the problem and start intimidating the problem with our intentional pursuit of loving those that are caught in addiction?
I'm no stranger to this. My addiction grabbed hold of me in my early high school years, right when this epidemic started. I have watched as over 30 of my friends have died in this war. I've been blessed to live in healthy recovery for over a decade now, but too many others aren't making it out.
The battle is a messy one, but here are our choices...
Continue to ignore this dark crusade of death, loss, and destruction and pawn it off on the next generation. Or stop ignoring it, face it head on, and enter into the mess to bring a message of hope.
It costs nothing to step outside our comfort zone, drop the judgement, and love someone that is struggling with addiction. It costs nothing to take a cooked meal over to the neighbors house that you know has its struggles. It costs nothing to be a listening ear to the relative that has yet to grasp their freedom and enter into recovery.
Intentionally loving people that are struggling with addiction requires a budget of ZERO dollars. People are hurting, and it’s more then just physical pain.
Taking time to reach out to someone that is struggling takes as little as five minutes and goes further then we think.
Who can you love today?
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