Different place, same sad story. The USA Today-affiliated Tennessean. site recently posted a number of stories about opioid abuse in the state of Tennessee.
One story reports that Tennessee has more opioid prescriptions per person than any other state in the United States. Such large numbers of prescriptions have driven the rates of opiate/opioid addiction in the United States.
The story shatters the illusion that drug abuse is confined to the abuse of illegal, illicit drugs such as heroin or MDMA (also known as ecstasy or Molly).
The article also illustrates that opioid/opiate abuse is not a problem confined to a handful of big cities. Some people believe that drugs are just an inner-city problem, but numerous stories have shown how addiction is a problem in rural and suburban areas as well.
Other less-urban areas of the United States have large numbers of people struggling with opiate/opioid abuse. Such a large number of rural people have developed addictions to OxyContin (oxycodone), in fact, that the drug has the nickname hillbilly heroin.
For example, the state of West Virginia sued the company that markets the drug OxyContin, claiming that it contributed to the surge of drug addiction in the state. As a result of the lawsuit, the company paid millions of dollars to fund education and drug abuse programs in West Virginia.
The U.S. South also has other areas with high rates of drug prescriptions and abuse. For example, the state of Florida has a large number of pill mills. Pill mills are facilities such as pharmacies, doctors, or health care centers that issue narcotic drugs in illegal ways.
People are just as likely to be addicted to a prescription drug as an illegal one, then. People in all regions can struggle with drug abuse, as evidence from Tennessee, West Virginia, and Florida indicates. All of this evidence indicates that are many misconceptions when it comes to drugs and drug abuse.
