Eastern Kentucky: Prescription and Illicit Drug Addiction

Although the epidemic of prescription drug abuse has left few corners of the United States untouched—according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 183,000 people died from overdosing on prescription opioids in the years 1999-2015—the state of Kentucky has been particularly hard-hit (Galewitz). In Clay County alone, pharmacies annually fill prescriptions for 2.2 million doses of hydrocodone and 617,000 doses of oxycodone, or about 150 doses for every man, woman, and child resident in the county (Galewitz). High unemployment, high rates of conditions such as obesity and diabetes which are often accompanied by pain, and poverty have all conspired to fuel the county’s dependence on prescription drugs (Galewitz). Although the rate of prescription drug abuse was always high in Kentucky, there has been a spike in addiction over the past three years given the Medicaid expansion has made drugs more affordable to the area’s depressed residents, although the Medicaid expansion has also made treatment for addiction more affordable to those in need (Galewitz).

The heroin epidemic in Kentucky has likewise been burgeoning in recent years. Again, all of the nation has been hard-hit. “In 2001, fewer than 1,800 Americans died of a heroin overdose. By 2016, those deaths had topped 15,000” (Mitchell & Ungar). Not only has the supply dramatically expanded in Kentucky, but there has also been a cross-over between the opioid abuse epidemic and the heroin epidemic, as new strains of heroin are often treated with synthetic opioids to increase their potency (Mitchell & Ungar). Heroin and prescription opioids are both opium derivatives, and addiction for one substance may eventually result in a crossover addiction to the other. Furthermore, the contamination with prescription opioids means that heroin addicts often have very little knowledge of how much of the substance they are ingesting, which puts them at greater risk of an overdose. The heroin of today is thus both more lethal as well as more available than ever before in the state.

Works Cited

Galewitz, Phil. “The Pharmacies Thriving in Kentucky's Opioid-Stricken Towns.” The Atlantic. 7 Feb 2017. Web. 11 Feb 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/02/kentucky-opioids/515775/

Mitchell, Jerry & Ungar, Laura. “Drugs kill more Americans than guns and cars. Kentucky was ground zero from the start.” Courier Journal. Web. 11 Feb 2018. https://www.courier- journal.com/story/news/investigations/2018/01/28/kentucky-ground-zero-opioid- epidemic/1069608001/