It's Closer Than You Think

"There is no aspect of life that is untouched by the opioid epidemic. We've got to do better than this, or we're going to lose way to many human beings as a result."- Judith Feinburg Professor at West Virginia University.  

Recently I have been watching short documentaries showcasing the horrors of the fentanyl epidemic and how it affects so many people. After watching these documentaries, I wanted to learn more about how much fentanyl affects the United States specifically. I was honestly blown away by just how terrible it is. This is a very real and widespread epidemic that most people don’t think about or think it affects them personally. I’m passionate about this project because after learning about stories of people affected and watching videos of what people go through it shows me that this is a crisis that needs to be battled right now and not put off. I knew about the fentanyl epidemic but never knew just how out of hand and deadly it is and how many people die from it each year. This research project has really opened my eyes to the danger of fentanyl and the danger in ordering medication from online sources or not pharmaceutical stores because you never know if a pill is laced or not. I hope that this project will make people more aware of this epidemic and to be more careful when handling medication or unknown substances. I also hope that somehow this will convince people that the high is not worth losing your life or being addicted to such a dangerous and harmful drug like fentanyl. I chose to use the quote by Judith Feinburg because it talks about how everyone's life is affected by the opioid epidemic even if you don't know it. It also talks about how we need to take action against this epidemic because we are losing to many human beings as a result. What this quote means to me is that every day thousands of people overdose due to fentanyl and hundreds are innocent teens that are my age ruining their lives because they were introduced to a deadly drug. I think of all these teens that never got to make it past 17 and never got to live a full life just due to the fact that this terrible drug kills every day.