Opioid Epidemics Toll: Surging Overdoses and Declining U.S. Life Expectancy

Name Institutional Affiliations Date Over-prescription of Opioid Drug in the United States Background Statement on Current Landscape of the Problem Over-prescription of opioid enhances its over-dose and addiction among many Americans making it a controversial issue that is closely tied to the ongoing fall in U.S life expectancy. Over-prescription happen when one is given a drug or treatment in greater amounts or more often than necessary. It may also imply to the act of being given medicines that one no longer need or want and such medicines may pose greater harm than good to the victim. While arguing over-prescription from opioid overdose point of view, it is unfortunate that although this opioid epidemic claims many lives of Americans of all ages over years, those between 35 and 44 years are greatly affected with 71% of all opioid-related deaths occurring between the ages of 25 to 54 years (Judd et al., 2023). Based on their research on “The opioid epidemic: a review of the contributing factors, negative consequences, and best practices” these authors further confirm that of such deaths, male suffer the most taking seven out of every ten deaths. So one may wish to understand what then fosters opioid overdose dose amongst Americans and according to these authors, some of the triggers ranges from over-prescribing opiates and opioids, less education, divorce or being unmarried, unemployment and the hardships of living in rural regions of the United States (Judd et al., 2023). It pains to confirm that since opioid became broadly available in the 90s; tracking of its associated deaths began receiving attention in 1999 and has reported an upward trend since then. Unfortunately, due to aforementioned triggers, the most vulnerable victims of opioid epidemic are Caucasians, Native Americans and Alaska Native as most of them are school dropouts that are jobless thus seek refuge in the cooling effects of this substance. In 2020, people with high diploma or GED accounted for 35.4% of all opioid-related deaths, school drop-outs took 23.7% opioid overdose deaths, married 42.9% opioid overdose deaths while divorced took divorced 21.3%