A combination of studies and news stories has been going around the internet the past few weeks regarding the impact of opiate drugs not just on adults, teenagers, and the elderly - but on newborn babies. While many of these discussions and statistics kind of fall into the same fear mongering mindset of many reports on drug epidemics, one estimated statistic does certainly tend to make an impact on those that see it:
Every hour a baby is born addicted to opiates.
The study took place between 2000 and 2009 and was conducted by the University of Michigan. It found that regardless of the reason, a five-fold increase in the use of these drugs during the study period has resulted in an astonishing increase to babies born with an opiate dependency. While unwanted and poorly maintained pregnancies amongst drug addicted women is already a well-documented phenomenon, another factor is certainly those that are prescribed opiates for a pain problem and either can't quit it during pregnancy or think that nothing is wrong with that.
Well that is certainly far from the case as "neonatal abstinence syndrome" can result in feeding intolerence, irritability, seizures, and breathing problems as well as low birth weight. Newborns who are cut off from the opiate supply they get in their mother's womb can start to experience these withdrawal symptoms within hours of being born.
Addiction to oxycodone and hydrocodone is one of the worst man-made health crises America has ever seen. While used all the time for pain-relief that would otherwise be impossible, it's danger to the overall public is extreme. Countless people are legally prescribed the drugs and immediately become addicted. Still others use them recreationally and end up in the same experience. Chronic addiction, overdose, death, and imprisonment are all common results of opiate abuse.
Hence a taskforce specially assigned to investigate this phenomenon in Florida. The suffering this problem creates is immense and deplorable. Some part of the blame for this must lay at the manufacturers and prescribers of these drugs - because unlike other addiction problems, this problem will occur even for those that are being safely medicated by an addictive substance and are not abusing it. While it is a slightly lesser problem, there are also millions of Americans taking CNS depressants that are looking at a difficult situation should they become pregnant and still be taking these drugs.
There is little information available for people facing this problem - in fact, many Americans today still think little of exposing pregnant women to cigarette smoke. Combined with other 21st century health catastrophes such as obesity, and the millions of people suffering increased rates of cancer, asthma, allergies, and other problems attributed to poor lifestyle choices and pollutants, opiate dependency in newborns is yet another pharmacological nightmare that America can ill afford.
Find out more about the dangers of prescription drug abuse and how it can be treated.
