Drug abuse has serious negative impact on the family. As recently as 2016, The Department of Health and Human Services has found that 11 million Americans misused prescription opioids, and another stat says as many as 26 million have self-reported misuse of prescription drugs. There are 1 million who use heroin, and 2.1 million who have an opioid addiction due to prescription use. If you combine addiction and abuse of alcohol, illicit drugs and opiates over half of American families are struggling with active addiction.

Sadly, many unsuspecting citizens have a legitimate physical injury due to accidents, athletics or citizens in need of a surgery or medical procedure and are prescribed opiates and are unaware of the power of its addictive properties. They subsequently find themselves addicted. Besides the significance of our population that is addicted or abuses alcohol or drugs, most recently with the opioid epidemic the latest statistics say 115 of precious souls die every day from opioid abuse. Another statistic says there 176 overall daily deaths of precious souls due to addiction.

In recent years the system has become aware of this unintended consequence on many of our citizen’s and have begun to address it with more awareness of its dangers and addictive properties and implementing prescription monitoring programs for the medical profession, but tragically the person is already addicted. As a consequence of being cut off on their opiates, to manage their pain, preserve their addiction and their body’s dependency on the drugs, many of them are turning to “the streets” to find heroin or painkillers, and many are consequently dying from overdose. Reuter’s reports that death from overdose have quintupled. Another cause leading to death is the fact that the heroin on the streets is many times laced with fentanyl, which the FDA says is 50 to 100 times more powerful than heroin. There have been reports that fentanyl is so strong, that drug dogs are dying from its scent.