Deaths increase and by what: According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse the amount of

deaths caused by Opioid has increased from 8,048 in 1999 to 18,515 in 2007 to 47,600 people
in 2017. There have been overdose deaths by cocaine, benzodiazepines, and
antidepressants all being involved with opioids. The drug overdose by opioids which is
prescription opioids (including methadone), synthetic opioids, and heroine caused the deaths of
people to exceedingly increase over a course of 18 years.

White House Takes Action: Drug overdose is now the leading cause of death by injury in the
United States. It has been addressed by the White House that the drug supply and drug
demand needs to be reduced because of the opioid misuse, addiction, and overdose. This is
being said because of the 63,632 deaths, all of which were caused by the misuse, addiction, or
overuse of the drug opioid. There have been 731.2 opioid prescriptions per 1,000 people in the
United States and there have been 244,588 attempts to rescue the people that have had opioid
overdose according to the White House Initiative.

Australia Opioid Usage: In 2013 in Australia about 15 million packs of opioids were purchased
over the counter accounting for 36.6% of the total opioid sales. Prescribing opioids for over a
week can double the long term risk for the usage of this drug from 6%- 13% and then doubles
again to 29.9% if the usage of this drug continues for about a month. These risks toward
becoming addicted to this life threatening drug is elevating over the years according to the NPS
Medicinewise.

Alternative Medications: In the 1990’s there was a sudden rise of marketing for opioids. This
caused a lot of doctors around the world to prescribe opioids as pain relief medications when
the patients complained of pain when they could’ve prescribe something less severe such as
ibuprofen, gabapentin, and even anti- seizure medication which is FDA approved for certain
types of nerve related pain. There are more than 200 alternative medications rather than
opioids which are less harmful and less likely to leave you addicted according to Truth Initiative.

Addiction: While heroin is one of the most addictive drugs on the planet, opioids are also
chemically similar to heroin causing just about the same amount of damage. Once many
people’s prescription expire they turned to more effective and stronger drugs that end up
causing more harm than they intended it to, they get addicted to it. More than 115 people die
everyday in the United States because of the misuse of these drugs, that’s one person every
12 minutes according to the Truth Initiative.

Government of Canada Takes Action on Opioids: In 2016 there were more than 2,800
suspected opioid related deaths in Canada. Doctors thought that if they gave prescribed
opioids for chronic pains then patients wouldn’t get addicted to it, this thinking was quickly
proven wrong. Businesses that dispensed opioids inappropriately were quickly popping up.
The opioids weren’t even that helpful after a while because they later lost effect and patients
were lucky if it even helped reduce the pain by 20%-30%. These drugs were weakening the
immune system, caused hormonal imbalances, respiratory depression, and constipation, but
these were only a few of the many side effects it had on a person according to Health Canada.
They are only helpful for treating short term pains, but doctors started using them for other
reasons and unintentionally they got the patients addicted to them when they could've given
something that had less side effects.

Stigma: There are 3 main types of stigma according to the Government of Canada. The first
one is social stigma in which people give off a negative attitude towards those who used
drugs, their friends, and family members; they completely ignore their presence. The second
one is structural stigma in which health and social services is designed in a way that they only
start helping when a person's drug use is better controlled. The last one is self-stigma in which
the person affected takes the negative messages they see about other people and apply it to
themselves. They feel fear, shame, hopelessness, rejection, and isolation. Opioids have
affected the daily lives of many people.

CITATIONS
National Institute on Drug Abuse: National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2018, August 09).
Overdose Death Rates. Retrieved from https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-
statistics/overdose-death-rates
White House Initiative: Opioids.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.opioids.gov/
NPS Medicinewise: Holliday, Simon, Hayes, Chris, Jones, Lester, . . . Michael. (2018, May 15).
Prescribing wellness: comprehensive pain management outside specialist services | Australian
Prescriber. Retrieved from https://www.nps.org.au/australian-prescriber/articles/prescribing-
wellness-comprehensive-pain-management-outside-specialist-services
Truth Initiative: What is the Opioid Epidemic? (2018, June 12). Retrieved from
https://opioids.thetruth.com/o/articles/what-opioid-epidemic
Health Canada: Canada, H. (2018, November 30). Government of Canada Actions on Opioids:
2016 and 2017. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/health-
canada/services/publications/healthy-living/actions-opioids-2016-2017.html

- Affirmative Constructive Speech (4 minutes). The speaker for the affirmative

presents their arguments.
- Negative Cross-Examination (2 minutes). The speaker(s) for the negative
questions the affirmative speaker on the points they made in their constructive
speech.
- Negative Constructive Speech (4 minutes). The speaker for the negative
presents their arguments.
- Affirmative Cross-Examination (2 minutes). The speaker(s) for the affirmative
questions the negative speaker on the points they made in their constructive
speech.
- Affirmative Rebuttal (3 minutes). The affirmative speaker rebuts the points made
by the negative speaker.
- Negative Rebuttal (4 minutes). The negative speaker rebuts the points made by
the affirmative speaker.
- Final Affirmative Rebuttal (1 minute). The affirmative speaker again rebuts.