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Drug and Substance Abuse Treatment

Drug and substance abuse is still a really problem

Knoxville is a city in United States of Tennessee known as a unique city, where the beautiful mountains meet the citizen´s music and arts combine with adventure while their cuisine represents their southern souls. On the other hand in the last few years Knoxville is becoming famous for other reasons, left a side their popular sport team called "Volunteers”, the city has converted into the root for a disease and Tennessee is now consider the city with the second-highest opioid prescription rate in the country, that is more than one prescription for every citizen.

In the medical community an addiction is consider a disease. People who suffer from addiction tend to self-medicate and they do this to have a sense of control over their lives which leads them more to the use of drugs. The truth is that the cure for these self-induced illnesses can include everything from rehab to detox, but more medicine or drugs.

With that being said is important to know what Opioids are and why they are the cause of 1,451 related deaths in 2015 in Tennessee. This are very addictive drugs that act on the nervous system to relieve pain, they can even be in a medical prescription as pain relievers, but the thing is that continued use and abuse can lead to physical dependence and withdrawal symptoms. Opioids act on the person slowing down their breathing so in an overdose the person can completely stop breathing causing their death. Sadly in the United States about 20,000 people die from this kind of prescription drug overdose every year, and even sadder is that about 75 of them are teens.

Man Depressive Loneliness  - GioeleFazzeri / Pixabay


Knoxville is struggling right now to beat this illness and even though the medical technology in the United States is one of the most moderns there still is a daily struggle with illnesses of this nature because the solution doesn’t depend on a short-term treatment that will not heal an addict and even less on a one-treatment-fits-all work either.

It is also well known that addictions are expensive but no one can believe that treating people with addictions is even more expensive and since it´s seems to be relevant, it takes at least 18 months for an addict's brain to fully recover, for that person to be restored to whom they once were. Plus how many addicts really worry about their health and have insurance? Well while some are underinsured others don´t even care to have one.

It is not only about and addiction, this illness really does deteriorate the whole system since 90 percent of the crime in Knoxville is related to addiction, young people that are losing the golden years of their lives to drugs and let´s not forget about the 91 Americans that die each and every single day from an opioid overdose.

But there is still hope for this cause all due to the Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch and his nonstop work, he even said he has called and traveled to the Legislature so many times that he has lost count. This man has a voice and knows how to use it because even though the lawmakers may be getting tired of hearing from and seeing him he said he isn’t planning to stop any time soon.

Addiction is just a way of trying to get at something else. Something bigger. Call it transcendence if you want, but it’s like a rate in a maze. We all want the same thing. We all have this hole. The thing you want offers relief, but it’s a trap.

Tess Callahan - Author

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