I. Attention Catcher: The number of fatalities related to opioid overdoses has become one, if not the number one, public health emergencies among Americans.
II. Listener Relevance Link: Prescription opioid medication had undergone a huge transformation making it more difficult for people to obtain and physicians to prescribe opioid medications to combat pain.
III. Thesis Statement: The opioid epidemic is a local, state, and national problem that has caused all areas of government to focus on the problem and provide solutions to reduce the number or fatalities occurring daily from opioid overdoses.
IV. Preview: This topic was chosen for a couple reasons: numerous police officers are now carrying reversal medications for individuals who overdose, deaths from overdoses and/or calls for overdoses in my career have become a daily occurrence, and the local medical examiner’s office has become so inundated with overdose deaths that it is …show more content…
Third main point: Is the opioid epidemic truly an epidemic or is the scope of the problem overestimated?
a. In 2017, it was reported that almost 14% of Americans believe the opioid epidemic is the most urgent healthcare problem facing the United States today, which is up from 3% a year prior. As one can see this is still an issue that is only known and addressed by a few in the American population.
i. The Center for Disease and Control (CDC) reports that the number of opioid deaths (prescription and/or illegal) have increased fourfold since 1999. ii. A large amount of money is being used to combat the opioid epidemic by increasing a police presence, but often times this is reactive rather than proactive and this is only one way to combat the crisis. In order to tackle this problem multiple strategies need to be used and one is to limit the drug trafficking, but this country also needs to get better at providing mental health counseling as well as addiction, treatment programs for those individuals being affected (Gallup,
II. Listener Relevance Link: Prescription opioid medication had undergone a huge transformation making it more difficult for people to obtain and physicians to prescribe opioid medications to combat pain.
III. Thesis Statement: The opioid epidemic is a local, state, and national problem that has caused all areas of government to focus on the problem and provide solutions to reduce the number or fatalities occurring daily from opioid overdoses.
IV. Preview: This topic was chosen for a couple reasons: numerous police officers are now carrying reversal medications for individuals who overdose, deaths from overdoses and/or calls for overdoses in my career have become a daily occurrence, and the local medical examiner’s office has become so inundated with overdose deaths that it is …show more content…
Third main point: Is the opioid epidemic truly an epidemic or is the scope of the problem overestimated?
a. In 2017, it was reported that almost 14% of Americans believe the opioid epidemic is the most urgent healthcare problem facing the United States today, which is up from 3% a year prior. As one can see this is still an issue that is only known and addressed by a few in the American population.
i. The Center for Disease and Control (CDC) reports that the number of opioid deaths (prescription and/or illegal) have increased fourfold since 1999. ii. A large amount of money is being used to combat the opioid epidemic by increasing a police presence, but often times this is reactive rather than proactive and this is only one way to combat the crisis. In order to tackle this problem multiple strategies need to be used and one is to limit the drug trafficking, but this country also needs to get better at providing mental health counseling as well as addiction, treatment programs for those individuals being affected (Gallup,