As the presidential candidates shift their focus toward New Hampshire for the upcoming primary elections, a new issue has surfaced and thankfully so. Drug abuse is one of our nation's most destructive and pervasive internal problems. In the state of New Hampshire, drug use has become an increasingly worse dilemma. According to a study by the Chief Medical Examiner's Office in New Hampshire, deaths from opiate/opioid drugs, like prescription drugs and heroin, have risen from 192 in 2013 to almost 400 in 2015. Emergency Medical Services in Hillsborough County reported administering the anti-overdose drug, Naloxone, over 2,000 times in 2015 alone. Almost everyone in the state has been negatively affected by their own drug use or by a loved one's choices, so focusing on this issue is clearly important to the people of New Hampshire.
New Hampshire's "Heroin Crisis" as it is being called, is symptomatic of the entire country. Illicit drug use is costing our country $193 billion annually in crime costs, lost work productivity, and medical services according to drugabuse.gov. A study done by the National Institute of Health reveals that 9 million people in our nation admit misusing prescription drugs in the past year. 5 million were men, and 4 million were women.
The increased talk by our presidential candidates on this issue may be just talk to ease stress of this urgent issue on minds of people in New Hampshire for this Tuesday night, but almost all of the candidates have reported personal experiences with loved ones who have been affected by drugs. Ted Cruz's half-sister passed away from an accidental overdose. Jeb Bush's daughter was arrested with cocaine when he was serving as governor. Carly Fiorina's step-daughter died from a drug overdose. Kasich and Clinton have also vocalized the importance of fighting to reduce these incidents with passion and action plans. One of the main proposals by many candidates is to treat drug addiction as a disorder or disease and emphasize treatment over incarceration. Trump says his plans to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border will stop drug transportation into to our country thus greatly reducing the effects of this problem.
The drug abuse problem in our nation lands its crushing blows on many aspects of our society- economic growth and flourishing, a flooded court system, over-capacity prisons, break down of the family, and obviously, health. Whether one candidate has a greater plan than the others to remedy this catastrophe through regulation, rehabilitation programs, or harsher/lighter punishment, I do not know. But I know our country needs to focus on ridding ourselves of societal sedation and addiction to these extremely harmful substances.
