The Opioid Addiction
Drugs have taken hold of oppressed communities, and community members turn to drug abuse due to life challenges that they encounter. For instance, Heizer suffered from drug addiction, and it turned out to be worse sometime after he lost his boyfriend. Drug addiction caused Heizer to develop health complications like diabetes, kidney stones, and gout. Heizer has also become obese to the extent that he weighs three hundred and twenty-four pounds, and this is a health hazard since it can even be more disastrous and claim the life of Heizer. The above health issues not only affect Heizer, but they have also become prevalent in southern West Virginia. The consequence has been increased death rates, and this is a disadvantage both to the community and the government. The government loses sources of revenue while the community loses expertise and reliable personnel.
Companies have taken advantage of drug abuse to make exorbitant profits. OxyContin has become amongst the common, if not the most common, overdosed drugs in West Virginia. Consequently, the sellers of the drug have taken advantage of the situation to exploit consumers. For instance, a milligram of OxyContin costs one dollar. Companies have also made more earnings at the expense of quality. For example, Heizer notes that OxyContin used to take a few hours to be processed in the body, and users could experience an immediate impact. Still, companies have lowered the quality of the drug such that it cannot be crushed, and the effect is not immediate, and this has resulted in an overdose. As a result, users have experienced breathing and kidney failures. Individual dealers have also turned into healthcare clinics in the state of Florida to purchase large stocks of opiates, and they sell the opiates in West Virginia at higher profits. In addition, licensed drug dealers have been making huge profits from the sale of drugs.
Drug overdose has also increased community oppression through the death of loved ones. For instance, Hovack states that he lost his niece, who was only in her early twenties, and Heizer dies while in his house. Havock also talks of a classmate who is struggling with drug addiction and has been forced to live in a poor house that has no running water or electricity. In addition, the legal system has facilitated the oppression of the community members. Some of the people who have been convicted of selling the drugs are elderly people who are trying to make both ends meet. The oppression has increased the suffering of the community members since community members have suffered from depression and pain. The crime rate has also become common, and people are breaking into other’s houses and stealing anything they can sell to get money to buy the drugs.
In the video clip, the statistics in West Virginia are alarming. Around 20 million prescription pills were sold in 10 years, and this translates to 6500 pills person against a population of 3200 persons, and this was an overdose. One factor that contributed to the over-prescription was the availability of the pills. There was over-supply of the drugs from the drug distributors. The oversubscription caused agony to the community members. The information highlighted in the video clip is not far from that given in the text. In the text, there was five percent of persons seeking treatment for opiate addiction in a decade ago. But the percentage has increased to twenty-six percent, and this connects to the increased oversubscription level of pills in the video clip. Similarly, the number of deaths also increased. The drug dealers highlighted in the video clip connect to those in the text which are buying drugs from Florida to flood West Virginia.