The Opioid crisis in Manatee County
By: Austen Shearer
According to the Bradenton Herald, The opioid crisis has ravaged Manatee County for the past several years. According to the Your Observer Manatee County has the highest overdose rate in the state still with 54.2: per 100,000, the state average is 21.8: 100,000. In my time of growing up there I have been a witness to the opioid crisis and watched as the county and people have fallen apart. Opioids are a drug that is used to mostly elevate pain, usually in a pill form you can get prescribed from a doctor. In this paper I’m going to express my experiences that I have seen it in person, who it has affects and the outcome of it all.
To begin, when I was in high school I watched as the people at school had begun to find out that all it took was a pill to get you high and how easy it was to get them from medicine cabinets at their houses. That was the first time I had really noticed people were really getting addicted to it. People who I had known for a long time started looking bad and failing classes and skipping school. It got so bad that the school stared having the Palmetto Police Department bring in drug sniffing dogs on the regular. I watched kids who wanted to be “cool” try it once then next thing you know they’re addicted and can’t help themselves. It was crazy to see that kids as young as 15 were being drawn into the crisis. That was a real eye opener for everyone including the teachers and staff who now had to worry about it for their own students.
Secondly, I have seen the outcome of the addiction process. When I was in high school I had friends who became addicted. It was sad because they distanced themselves from everyone and they became known as the druggies in the school. I had one dear friend of mine who was so addicted to them he became dependent on them and after his girlfriend had dumped him he got so messed up on it he committed suicide just a few months before our graduation. That was when everyone really noticed that there was a problem that was being unacknowledged going on and needed to be addressed as soon as possible. Last week a friend of mine commit suicide who had been struggling with addiction for years. From what I could tell from social media she seemed to be doing much better for herself. She had went to college and received a certificate in cosmetology. Come to find out, her battle was worse than anyone imagined, she committed suicide and ended the battle. These are just a few of the stories that I have experienced and its sad to say that I foreshadow more to come.
Lastly, when I first joined the Army the opioid crisis was nearing its peak. I had never seen Heroine or opium in its plant form until I went to Afghanistan. When I was there we would do patrols and walk around the green fields but come to find out they were green fields of pure opium in its Plant form. That was the first time I had seen it in person and it was crazy to think that these drug fields were just growing like grass and no one batted an eye. It was how the terrorists made money to fund their armies. When we would burn down the fields I felt a sense of actually doing something right, I felt that maybe I was saving a life by burning down a field. In all reality one field didn’t do anything compared to the miles and miles of fields they had growing just on the other side of the mountain. This plant was so strong whenever we would walk through the fields we would have to make sure we were completely covered and no skin was showing, if the plant would touch your bare skin you could’ve became “high” because the drug would soak into your pores and then in to your blood stream. We would see truckloads of thousands of pounds of what they called “Black Heroine” which over there is worth a little but once it made it out of the country that truck load was worth millions of dollars
.
In conclusion the opioid epidemic is defiantly an issue with Manatee County and so far they have realized it and made steps to help combat the crisis. Just in 2017 Manatee County granted $500,000 for a program called the Peer Pilot Program. Which has since then worked with 60 addicts according to the Bradenton Herald. I believe they are heading down the right track and hope they will continue their attempt to make the county clean again and maybe reduce my foreshadowed worry of the futures of my living friends still struggling with this addiction.
By: Austen Shearer
According to the Bradenton Herald, The opioid crisis has ravaged Manatee County for the past several years. According to the Your Observer Manatee County has the highest overdose rate in the state still with 54.2: per 100,000, the state average is 21.8: 100,000. In my time of growing up there I have been a witness to the opioid crisis and watched as the county and people have fallen apart. Opioids are a drug that is used to mostly elevate pain, usually in a pill form you can get prescribed from a doctor. In this paper I’m going to express my experiences that I have seen it in person, who it has affects and the outcome of it all.
To begin, when I was in high school I watched as the people at school had begun to find out that all it took was a pill to get you high and how easy it was to get them from medicine cabinets at their houses. That was the first time I had really noticed people were really getting addicted to it. People who I had known for a long time started looking bad and failing classes and skipping school. It got so bad that the school stared having the Palmetto Police Department bring in drug sniffing dogs on the regular. I watched kids who wanted to be “cool” try it once then next thing you know they’re addicted and can’t help themselves. It was crazy to see that kids as young as 15 were being drawn into the crisis. That was a real eye opener for everyone including the teachers and staff who now had to worry about it for their own students.
Secondly, I have seen the outcome of the addiction process. When I was in high school I had friends who became addicted. It was sad because they distanced themselves from everyone and they became known as the druggies in the school. I had one dear friend of mine who was so addicted to them he became dependent on them and after his girlfriend had dumped him he got so messed up on it he committed suicide just a few months before our graduation. That was when everyone really noticed that there was a problem that was being unacknowledged going on and needed to be addressed as soon as possible. Last week a friend of mine commit suicide who had been struggling with addiction for years. From what I could tell from social media she seemed to be doing much better for herself. She had went to college and received a certificate in cosmetology. Come to find out, her battle was worse than anyone imagined, she committed suicide and ended the battle. These are just a few of the stories that I have experienced and its sad to say that I foreshadow more to come.
Lastly, when I first joined the Army the opioid crisis was nearing its peak. I had never seen Heroine or opium in its plant form until I went to Afghanistan. When I was there we would do patrols and walk around the green fields but come to find out they were green fields of pure opium in its Plant form. That was the first time I had seen it in person and it was crazy to think that these drug fields were just growing like grass and no one batted an eye. It was how the terrorists made money to fund their armies. When we would burn down the fields I felt a sense of actually doing something right, I felt that maybe I was saving a life by burning down a field. In all reality one field didn’t do anything compared to the miles and miles of fields they had growing just on the other side of the mountain. This plant was so strong whenever we would walk through the fields we would have to make sure we were completely covered and no skin was showing, if the plant would touch your bare skin you could’ve became “high” because the drug would soak into your pores and then in to your blood stream. We would see truckloads of thousands of pounds of what they called “Black Heroine” which over there is worth a little but once it made it out of the country that truck load was worth millions of dollars
.
In conclusion the opioid epidemic is defiantly an issue with Manatee County and so far they have realized it and made steps to help combat the crisis. Just in 2017 Manatee County granted $500,000 for a program called the Peer Pilot Program. Which has since then worked with 60 addicts according to the Bradenton Herald. I believe they are heading down the right track and hope they will continue their attempt to make the county clean again and maybe reduce my foreshadowed worry of the futures of my living friends still struggling with this addiction.