County and Township struggle with opioid crisis
By Avery Hill
January 12, 2018
By Avery Hill
January 12, 2018
The opioid epidemic in the U.S. has been a topic that has been in the limelight of the public eye for some time now. Last year, opioid related overdose deaths outweighed deaths in auto accidents by an estimated 24,000 people.
This has affected Hampton’s residents and could possibly affect you as well.
Allegheny County has taken the recent epidemic quite hard. Allegheny county has an overdose rate more than three times as high as the national average, 52.3 per 100,000 compared to . Coming in with a total 650 cases of opiate-related overdose deaths in 2016. And pennsylvania rounding out at about 4,650. Point being, it’s serious and deserves to be in the limelight.
As compared to other areas in Allegheny county, Hampton Township isn’t as bad. But actions still should be taken to prevent it from tearing apart our school and community. Dr. Imbarlina says the district has programs in place to aid students in conquering substance abuse. She prefers to be “Proactive not reactive.”
You or anybody you know aren’t exempt from drugs. In the words of Dr. Imbarlina, “opioid addiction, and substance abuse in general, doesn’t discriminate when it comes to its victims”. Hampton is a nice area to live in allegheny county, but she continued to say that we are “no different than any other municipality” in allegheny county.
Furthermore, no one starts by saying “I want to get addicted to opioids”. It starts with prescriptions believe it or not, there was enough prescriptions given out for everybody in pennsylvania to have 40 pills. Whether it be Vicodin, Oxycontin, or any other opiate pill. They get hooked on these painkillers and keep getting prescriptions filled. And as soon as they realize that $60 a day for pills is too expensive they switch to heroin. Which costs less than a third of what a dose of vicodin costs., and twice as disgusting.
Former Hampton alum Spencer Flowers passed January 1, 2017 from an opioid addiction. His mother came to the school and spoke about her son, the struggles her family went through, and how real the opioid epidemic really is. People from your neighborhoods die from, or are addicted to opioids. It is nothing joke about, people from your community die from opioids every year.
It will effect everyone in some way, how will you let it affect you?
This has affected Hampton’s residents and could possibly affect you as well.
Allegheny County has taken the recent epidemic quite hard. Allegheny county has an overdose rate more than three times as high as the national average, 52.3 per 100,000 compared to . Coming in with a total 650 cases of opiate-related overdose deaths in 2016. And pennsylvania rounding out at about 4,650. Point being, it’s serious and deserves to be in the limelight.
As compared to other areas in Allegheny county, Hampton Township isn’t as bad. But actions still should be taken to prevent it from tearing apart our school and community. Dr. Imbarlina says the district has programs in place to aid students in conquering substance abuse. She prefers to be “Proactive not reactive.”
You or anybody you know aren’t exempt from drugs. In the words of Dr. Imbarlina, “opioid addiction, and substance abuse in general, doesn’t discriminate when it comes to its victims”. Hampton is a nice area to live in allegheny county, but she continued to say that we are “no different than any other municipality” in allegheny county.
Furthermore, no one starts by saying “I want to get addicted to opioids”. It starts with prescriptions believe it or not, there was enough prescriptions given out for everybody in pennsylvania to have 40 pills. Whether it be Vicodin, Oxycontin, or any other opiate pill. They get hooked on these painkillers and keep getting prescriptions filled. And as soon as they realize that $60 a day for pills is too expensive they switch to heroin. Which costs less than a third of what a dose of vicodin costs., and twice as disgusting.
Former Hampton alum Spencer Flowers passed January 1, 2017 from an opioid addiction. His mother came to the school and spoke about her son, the struggles her family went through, and how real the opioid epidemic really is. People from your neighborhoods die from, or are addicted to opioids. It is nothing joke about, people from your community die from opioids every year.
It will effect everyone in some way, how will you let it affect you?