The opioid epidemic claimed more lives in 2017 than any year before it. To add insult to injury, more laws and regulations were put out than any year before it either. The statistics are more than real and the figures are rising. Plain and simple: the United States is suffering from self-induced chemical warfare.
This may seem like a bit of a cynical overstatement, but rest assured that this opioid crisis is a very real thing. The statistics are so authentic that most likely 90% reading this page have been affected or are close to somebody that has been. Fentanyl, Carfentanil, and heroin have been silently flooding the streets and medicine cabinets of this country for the last decade. The last couple of years have bore witness to the chemical infiltration stealthily premeditated by the pharmaceutical companies pumping money into the government. It’s a real testament to the chaos that unfolds from alcoholic thinking. Big pharma sees the weakness and is just eating it up.
This epidemic is a plague- no doubt about it. As it targets state after state, county after county, we watch the statistics continue to prove invincible as the numbers keep growing with no resolve. States like Kentucky and Ohio teeter on the edge of collapse as Kentucky battle public health crisis and Ohio’s morgues run out of space. For heaven’s sake, the Ohio foster care system is failing in correlation between overdose deaths and widespread addiction. This is significant evidence of the picture straying far from Kodak when the masses of untreated alcoholic thinking begin to reach our seeds of the future.
Facing the Facts
The problems related to drug addiction are constantly increasing. Friends and families watch their loved ones immerse themselves into the misery of this disease on a daily basis without any ability to stop it. This misery yields a butterfly effect that disturbs the smooth running machine of society in so many ways. One of these being the disruption of the Ohio foster care system.
In Ohio, babies are born addicted to opioids every single day. Far too many of these innocent children are born on a daily basis and just thrown to the wolves. Thrown right into the effects of addiction without any fighting fairness. It’s such a shame. Opioids are making the world such a dark dark place and not enough people are racing to find a solution to the chemical corruption taking place.
Numbers from Akron’s Children’s Hospital show that beginning in 2010, the numbers of newborns coming into the world already addicted to opioids skyrocketed and has since just been steadily climbing. 2016 showed Ohio a year with nearly 84 newborns a day needing substance abuse treatment immediately out the womb. The number of undeserving children being born into that can really pull at one’s heartstrings. It’s an ugly situation that still affects these children way down the road even after treatment. This is just one catalyst for the problems affecting the Ohio foster care system. Just one.
Fostered Dependency
The Ohio foster care system exists for a plethora of reasons- just as any state ran child services programs do. The idea behind them is to protect the adults of the future. Children are innocent beings that are born into this world without any defense. We are unlike any other creature or animal to walk this planet. The United States deems that children aren’t ready to technically fend for themselves until they are 18 years of age; legally declared an adult.
Unfortunately, every person born into this world costs money. Here within lies the problem for the Ohio foster care system. There are too many being born into the system within the last couple of years due to negligent parenting under hypnosis of alcoholic thinking. As much as we would like to believe that the world is fair sometimes- it’s not. It’s not fair the parents have to undergo such powerlessness, but it’s, even more, a shame that so many innocent youths have to suffer from lack of love or care. Too many children in the Ohio foster care system have seen their guardians/parents overdose or be arrested for the insanity that feeding the epidemic.
Running Out of Room and Time
Ohio morgues are renting cold storage units to hold the deceased, hospitals are staying cautious of drug-addicted baby overflow, and Ohio foster care is struggling to make sure that all the children put out on the streets from lack of parenting are being taken care of. Scott Britton, assistant director of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio expresses, “If this pattern continues, what is our system going to look like? We could have 20,000 children in custody by 2020, and we could be spending more than half a billion dollars in placement costs. Those numbers are simply unsupportable.”
The problem with the opioid epidemic is that although it is fueling the fire currently, the problem doesn’t necessarily lie right there. There will always be a demand for getting high and there will always be a supply. Addiction is addiction. Whether the pharmaceutical companies keep pushing their Oxys and Fentanyl, or they begin producing prescription strength glue in a bag, the addiction statistics will stay the same.
Satan in a Pill
Chemical dependency coupled with the opioid epidemic will walk us down an awful road of bad luck and bad decisions. That may be the truest statement you come across today. While we cannot prevent procreation to slow down the Ohio foster care problems, we can prevent relapse and the thinking that follows along with it. We can become sober and spread to the message to the parents hanging onto their kids by a thread. We can spread the message of recovery at least. If you or a loved one is struggling with chemical dependency and are ready for help, please call 1-800-481-8457 or visit oarcstaging.wpengine.com. We are ready to give you any suggestions possible to help set you or your loved one on a path of freedom away from the shackles of addiction.
