The current opioid epidemic is the greatest public health crisis of our time, nationwide. However this crisis is causing tremendous pain in the Heartland of America. More people are dying from opioid related overdoses in the state of Oklahoma than from car accidents. It impacts all of us. Apart from devastating families with personal loss, the disease of addiction has impacted Oklahoma’s economy, medical system, and criminal justice system to the tune of billions of dollars.
This is happening to all of us. It can happen to any of us. Any one of us or anyone that we love can find ourselves in an emergency room or dentist office a prescription to some of the most highly addictive drugs every created-- pain killers.
We need to wake up and realize that this crisis effects all of us: no matter our demographic, our socioeconomic status, faith, or ethnicity. It’s time to “kill the pain” of opioid addiction.
