If you read the news, especially the health or addiction sections, the topic of opiates is always at the forefront. Whether it be prescription medications or heroin, it seems that someone is always dying from an overdose or someone’s life is being ruined by the addictions that these powerful and potent substances do to people. As yet there is no solution to this growing problem. Yes there are options for addicts seeking help, there are excellent treatment centers to help opiate addicts achieve sobriety and good health, but what if there existed some sort of prevention plan that would help curb the growing numbers of addicts seeking help? Treatment facilities offer people a new life, but the problem of prescription drugs and heroin could be put into the decline if more people knew what these substances do, how easily it is to get addicted to them, and what their futures will look like if they do decide to abuse their medications or go seeking heroin on the streets.
A county in Massachusetts is receiving over a half million dollars in order to help begin a drug prevention initiative in their community. They received the money from the Massachusetts Department of Health Bureau of Substance Abuse services, and they plan to merge and strengthen various collaborative projects. The substance abuse council was established last January to coordinate a regional public health approach to substance abuse through prevention, criminal justice, treatment and recovery.
The grant will support the creation of a collaborative that will be structured as a working committee of the substance abuse council with a specific emphasis on planning and implementing opiate prevention strategies.
With drugs becoming one of the most serious health concerns across North America, you wonder why initiatives like this have taken this long to arrive and implement. What many people forget is that the drugs aren’t exclusive to big cities and poor neighborhoods of such cities any more. The drugs are in the suburbs, the countryside, the schools and in what many people would call “small communities”. That’s why the addiction to opiates is so frightening these days, the big city problem has reached and penetrated even the most innocent of small towns and areas.
People should be concerned with the fact that their more sheltered communities now have drug problems, but with money being allocated towards drug prevention, and the fact that excellent rehabilitation centers exist for addicts, it wont be the equivalent to moving mountains in order to stop the drug abuse problem in and outside of the urban areas of North America. With the strong combination of drug education, prevention and appropriate treatment there is no room left for addiction to exist and grow. Crime will decrease, addicts will regain their health and communities will return to their old ways that attracted so many visitors and families looking for somewhere nice to raise their kids.