The Macro and Micro of the Opioid Crisis: Statistics and Stories
Addiction is a serious and ever-increasing problem, with escalating costs both at the macro (society) level and the micro (personal) level. Statistics on the opioid crisis are shocking. Opioid abuse was declared a nationwide public health emergency in October 2017 after the number of deaths in the U.S. from opioid abuse rose to over 40,000 per year. But statistics only tell us the big picture — the macro view. They depict the magnitude of this drug crisis and its consequences for society.
The true agony of this crisis can only be fully understood at the human level — the micro level — where lives are destroyed, and families devastated. 2019 marked 20 years since Purdue Pharma launched its flagship signature drug, Oxycontin, and unleashed this epidemic that has touched everyone from celebrities to common citizens, in metropolitan, suburban and rural areas alike. Since then the abuse of Opioids has spread across every demographic in the U.S.
