With opioid related drug overdoses sweeping the nation, we are now in the fourth wave of the modern opioid crisis which is now designated as an epidemic by the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC). Drug overdoses are now being experienced at an alarming rate amongst all Arkansans regardless to age, race, or economic class.
This wave of the crisis is characterized by virtually all illegally manufactured street drugs being laced with fentanyl, in either liquid or powder form. Prescription pills are often disguised as one substance, but are often laced with fentanyl, or entirely made of fentanyl.
Youth accidental overdose deaths have been reported in 2024 due to fentanyl laced marijuana. School districts across Central Arkansas are seeing an increase in students penalized for vaping. Many of those students often abuse marijuana (or THC Vapor Oil), illegally manufactured prescription pills, and other drugs. Methamphetamines on Central Aransas streets are now more chemically akin to Fentanyl then Methamphetamine.
If a person doesn't have a tolerance to opioids, or if a person consumes more fentanyl (or other opioid substances) than their body can tolerate, they will experience what is known as an accidental overdose. If a person who overdoses from the use of an opioid based substance does not receive Narcan (Naloxone) in an adequate amount of time, the person will die.
Naloxone is a medicine that is an antidote to opioid drugs. Opioids can slow or stop a person's breathing, leading to death. Naloxone helps a person who has opioids in his or her body wake up and keep breathing. Naloxone is also known by the brand name Narcan. An overdose death may happen hours after taking drugs. If a bystander acts when it is first noticed that a person's breathing has slowed, or when the user cannot be awakened, there is time to call 911, start rescue breathing (if needed) and give naloxone.
Many people are of the belief that the opioid crisis started in 1995 with the FDA's patent approval of OxyContin, and Purdue Pharma's gross and unethical marketing practices for the drug. It is true that Richard Sackler's incorporation of Purdue Pharma and creation of OxyContin after the death of Aurthur Sackler ignited the flames of the epidemic that has now engulfed our nation. However, the Opioid crisis actually in started in 1898 with the mass production of Bayer Co. Heroine.
In 1895 Felix Hofman, a German physicist employed at Bayer Co. synthesized both Heroine and Aspirin within a two-week span of each other seeking to make a pain reliever that would be less addictive than Morphine. In 1898, both drugs went into mass production and were distributed to pharmacies nationwide.
Bayer Aspirin was marketed as a pain reliever, and Bayer Heroine was marketed as both a pain reliver and cough suppressant. It was bottled and sold in the form of cough syrup. In pharmacological studies, it proved to be more effective than morphine or codeine, so it was promoted as the “Wonder Drug”.
Indeed, heroin was more effective than codeine in dealing with respiratory diseases. And being that it was cheaper than morphine, and in initial studies proved to be less addictive than morphine, it became the obvious choice for treating symptoms of the common cold and upper respiratory infections.
Unfortunately, though, after a few years on the market, Heroine was actually found to be three times stronger than Morphine. And it turned out that repeated administration of Heroin results in the development of tolerance, and heroine consumers soon became heroin-addicts. In the early 1910s morphine addicts "discovered" the euphoric properties of heroin and the fact that this effect is enhanced by intravenous administration. Heroin became a narcotic drug, and its abuse began to spread quickly.
Bayer Co. Aspirin proved to be a medical breakthrough for pain management and was one of the most successful products of the modern age of the pharmaceuticals industry. Bayer Aspirin can still be found in pharmacies, grocery stores, and convenience stores world-wide. But Bayer Co. Heroine was quite the opposite. Because Bayer Co. Heroine was the Americas choice for the ailments of the common cold in the early 1900’s, by 1924, all of America was addicted to it. So that year, the United States Congress passed the Anti-Heroine Act of 1924, which prohibited the importation and possession of opium for the chemical synthesis of Heroine. Unfortunately, the illegal manufacture and distribution of heroine continued after the Ant-Heroine Act.
The Heroine crisis was an honest mistake which led to the improvement in the way our drugs are tested and brought to market in the United States of America. The medical community, big pharma, and the United States Government took many steps to ensure that this type of crisis wouldn't happen again. After the Heroine crisis, it became the medical community's opinion that opium / opioid substances should only be prescribed in severe cases. Many healthcare practitioners would not prescribe them at all.
From the 1920's through the 1070's big pharma companies including Bayer Co. and the Sackler family-owned Purdue - Fredrick respected this opinion and operated within the guidelines set by the federal government in relation to marketing and production of prescription painkillers. Although Aurthur Sackler was the pioneer of medical advertising, he advertised with integrity, and became a multi-millionaire doing so. However, in the 1987, the great Aurthur Sacklers death set off a chain of events that would result in the start of today's opioid crisis.