Abstract
Each day I interact with individuals, including teens, whose lives have been affected by heroin use. I bear witness to pain, loss, family disintegration, shame, and hopelessness. Yet I also see the miracle of change. Despite recent media attention and increasing public awareness, opiate addiction is not a new phenomenon. Over the past few years, articles about the increasing incidence of opiate overdoses have dominated the news. In fact, while reading The Seventh Wish, a headline announced that the risk of an opiate overdose has surpassed the risk of dying in a car accident in our country. 1 Flower K. Senthilingam M. Odds of dying from accidental opioid overdose in the US surpass those of dying in car accident. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/14/health/opioid-deaths-united-states-surpass-road-accidents/index.htmlDate accessed: January 23, 2019 Google Scholar Recently, an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that youth mortality rates related to illicit opiate use have tripled over the past 18 years. 2 Leventhal J.M. Shabanova V. Gaither J.R. US National Trends in Pediatric Deaths From Prescription and Illicit Opioids, 1999-2016. JAMA Netw Open. 2018; (8)1:e186558. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.6558 Google Scholar This reality is hard to bear.
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