To the editor: The GazetteLeader’s Feb. 9 editorial [“Another Opioid Wake-up Call”] reflects a serious misunderstanding of opioid addiction.
The author suggests that opioid deaths are the result of “transgressions”, lack of “common sense” or “reckless” behavior by wayward teens. This is far from the truth about opioid addiction.
The massive increase in opioid addiction started with legally prescribed medications, when drug manufacturers criminally marketed opioids as non-addictive. Too many children and adults who were prescribed these medications became addicted, and this timing happened to overlap with COVID. When the doctor inevitably cuts off legal prescriptions, the addicted turn to the illegal market for cheaper heroin, that is now lethally laced with fentanyl.
The reality of addiction is a deep and overwhelming physical need for the drug as part of the addict’s very survival. Please don’t ascribe opioid addiction to teenage reckless behavior, lack of common sense or foolish transgressions. Most opioid addiction did not start that way.
It is far more insidious and far more difficult to address than simply having more fortitude, especially for the addicted themselves.
Joan FitzGerald, Arlington
