Page 5 - Addiction and Overdose: Confronting an American Crisis

wanted to take me, told me that
I shouldn’t drive, but I wouldn’t
listen. I don’t remember my
thoughts, I just knew that I had
to leave and get to where Adam
was. I grabbed my things and
cursed God as I ran for my car.
I drove as quickly as I could to
Adam’s apartment, about forty
minutes away from my office.”
She knew her son used heroin,
and she suspected an overdose
had killed him.

Left Behind

Stories similar to Adam’s happen
far too often in the United States.
Drug overdoses and deaths can Adam Kull died in 2015 from an overdose of fentanyl-
happen anywhere: in the dark laced heroin. Fentanyl is an opioid prescription
painkiller. He was one of nearly thirteen thousand
side streets and alleys of large
Americans who died from a heroin overdose that year.
inner cities; in small towns, rural
areas, and suburbs; in poor as
well as wealthy neighborhoods; and in small apartments and large homes. Its
victims include teens and twenty-somethings with bright futures, high school
and college athletes, blue- and white-collar workers, parents with young
children, men and women, people of every race and identity, and older adults
living with chronic pain. In 2015, the latest year for which the government has
complete data, the states with the highest rates of overdose deaths in order
were West Virginia, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Ohio, and Rhode Island.
Who dies of drug overdoses? A college athlete in Kentucky on Vicodin
for a football injury. A suburban mother in New Hampshire taking Percocet
for a broken ankle and Valium for anxiety. A farmworker in Ohio who was

Addiction and Overdose in AmericA 5