The opioid crisis hits home
In the past, it has been a lot easier to feel the six degrees of separation from you when it came to the sordid world of heroin addicts, dirty needles and hard drugs. It was easy to think of the victims of that world as marginal people who were misguided or just morally weak. How much of an effect did their troubles have on your business? Often the answer was not much, or none at all. It was a problem you could easily ignore.
That is no longer true. The crisis is here, and it's in our face. Few businesses are immune to its impact.
The current opioid crisis dwarfs any past drug period in its deadliness. If you don't know someone personally who has lost a friend, associate, loved one or family member to this crisis, then ask a co-worker or neighbor. None of us can be more than one degree of separation from feeling the pain.
In a state with an unemployment rate of under 4 percent and lots of job openings, we've lost 1,465 people to this scourge in 2016, according to preliminary figures from the state. They were young, bright, and evenly distributed among race and socioeconomic groups. This is an equal opportunity disease. The 2016 figure is nearly double the deaths from opioids in 2013. According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health records, 25 percent of all deaths in the state for 15-24 year olds were from opioid overdoses, while that number rises to 27 percent of deaths in the 45-54 age group, and among 25-34 year olds, a staggering 38 percent of all deaths.
Those percentage figures are projected to go up by several percentage points by the time all the death certificates with their toxicology reports are submitted for the fourth quarter.
In Worcester County, the opioid overdose death rate has accelerated at a grim level – 85 deaths in 2012, 106 deaths in 2013, 147 deaths in 2014, and 203 in 2015. The 2016 death count will inevitably rise above all these. As a chart of the human lives lost by our friends, neighbors, colleagues, and in many cases – our family – it is truly shocking.
Today, 80 percent of opioid addicts did not simply slip into hard drugs – they found their way there through a pill, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. They found it from a football injury, a car accident, a surgery or a bad back that landed them a large container of opioids, like Oxycontin or Percocet. They landed there and got stuck, often fighting for a way out, but not knowing where or who to turn to for help.
Treatment options have increased, the state passed opioid legislation a year ago, and President Donald Trump mentioned the importance of funding in his speech to Congress. But the death numbers are still stubbornly rising. This crisis needs ideas, energy, resources, creativity and, perhaps most importantly, understanding from our business leaders. We're losing workers – many bright young lives who had a real contribution to make to our society, our economy and their families. The Worcester County District Attorney's Office has a growing task force on the issue – consider joining it. WBJ has an Opioid Crisis Forum for employers at the end of the month – consider attending and learning more about the issue.
Central Mass. has always had a strong sense of community and concern for its neighbors. Let's show it by learning more about this crisis, removing the stigma, helping its many victims, and preventing others from going down that path.
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