According to a recent report conducted by the Center for Disease Control that considered the number of drug overdose-related deaths against their respective years since 1999 to 2013, there has been a permeating and disturbing difference between the number of deaths from heroin overdoses and the number from opioid pain relievers overdoses.

Despite the rising number of people using heroin since 1999, with an estimated 300,000 more people addicted to heroin since the last decade, more people have died from an overdose of opioid pain relievers.

Since 2008, more than 15,000 people have died each year from these pain relievers that can be purchased with a doctor’s prescription―a staggering number compared to the annual deaths from heroin overdose, which has been on the rise since 2010 but has not yet reached 10,000, cocaine overdose, which has stagnated roughly around 5,000 since 2009, and marijuana overdose, which recorded no fatalities from overdosing.

Nevertheless, opioid pain relievers, which are types of narcotic pain medication that have documented severe side effects if not used properly, have not experienced the strict legal control that heroin and cocaine had since the past decades.

According to WebMD, an American corporation that provides health news, advice, and expertise to the public, the specific physiological effects of opioid pain relievers include binding to opioid receptors in the?, the spinal cord, and other areas of the body, which consequently reduces the sending of pain messages to the?.

While some everyday pain can be addressed with over-the-counter pain medication such as Advil or Tylenol, moderate to severe pain is often reconciled with opioid pain relievers.

And in the eyes of the law, the possession, proper distribution, and usage is legal in most circumstances―a questionable and uncorrelatable truth given the skyrocketing deaths from its improper usage compared to deaths resulting from other illegal drugs.


<Hojoon Kim, Phillips Exeter Academy 11th Grade>