Title: The Opioid Epidemic in the United States

Rhetorical Purpose: To inform my audience about the dangers of opioid abuse in our country

and how it affects people on a widespread and personal basis.

Thesis Statement: Drug overdoses is the leading cause of death in our country, especially from

opioids such as heroin, fentanyl, and painkillers, and affects almost everyone in the united

states.

Introduction:

I. Attention getter: On August 10th, 2017, President Trump declared the ongoing opioid

crisis in our country a national emergency. On average, about 100 people die every day

from opioid overdose. It is reported that over 2 million Americans have had “a problem

with opioids.” Trump was quoted saying "We're going to spend a lot of time, a lot of

effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis. It is a serious problem the likes of which

we have never had." Researchers say that if nothing is done about this problem that

over 650,000 will die from overdose in the next 10 years.

II. Thesis statement: Drug overdoses is the leading cause of death in our country, especially

from opioids such as heroin, fentanyl, and painkillers, and affects almost everyone in the

United States.

III. Connection to audience: Some of you may know about this topic because one of your

friends or family members has had a problem with opioids or you have at least heard of

certain celebrities, especially rappers, overdosing on opioids.

million people took prescription painkillers in 2015 and of those people, about 12

million did so without a prescription from a doctor.

V. Preview: to address the dangers and importance of knowing about the opioid crisis in

our country, I am going to explain where these drugs are coming from, where this

epidemic is most prominent, and how to help anyone you know who is struggling with

this problem.

[transition: in order to understand how people are obtaining Opioids, let me tell you how the

opioid crisis began and how they are getting their hands on them.]

Body:

I. Understanding and knowing the history of the opioid crisis helps educate the listener on

why people are abusing these drugs and learn where the drugs are coming from.

a. Doctors starting prescribing Opioids in the 1990s when they realized how many

people are struggling with pain.

i. Doctors started prescribing opioids to patients such as OxyContin when

most patients could be treated with weaker pain killers like ibuprofen.

They also would prescribe patients far too many pills allowing them to

abuse the pills. Other doctors would accept cash in exchange for

prescriptions.

ii. the Pharmaceutical companies advertised the drugs as safe and efficient

without mentioning the side effects such as addiction and overdose. The
 pharmaceutical companies did this because they knew how much money

they could make by selling these types of drugs.

b. Heroin and Fentanyl reach the market when consumers could not obtain

prescription opioids.

i. Opioid abusers started buying Heroin because they stopped receiving

prescriptions for legal opioids. Others started doing heroin solely

because they were chasing a stronger high.

ii. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is the leading drug causing overdoses.

Fentanyl is a very cheap to make, so drug dealers started cutting their

heroin with fentanyl, killing hundreds of thousands of people.

[transition: Now that you know about how people are getting opioids and why they are doing

them, I will address where in our country that opioids are most abundant.]

II. Opioids can be found in every state in our country, but certain states have easier access

to them which lead to more abusing of opioids in those states.

a. In the 1990s when the opioid crisis started, western states such as California and

New Mexico were the leading states of opioid overdose.

i. California passed the Assembly Bill of 1998, which required doctors to

Justify if a patient needs to continue treatment if the dosage has not

decreased by the third refill.

ii. Between 1999 and 2015, the rate of drug related deaths increased by

30% in California, according to the CDC.

skyrocketed in poorer regions like Ohio, Rhode Island, west Virginia, and New

Hampshire.

i. The leading region in per-capita overdose deaths is Ohio’s Montgomery

County. This county is in track for 800 drug overdose related deaths this

year alone.

ii. West Virginia has highest opioid overdose death rate out of any state in

our country, with a rate of 36 out of every 100,000 people, According to

the CDC data from 2015.

[transition: now that I explained where the opioid crisis is most abundant, I will now address

how pharmaceutical companies are trying to stop the crisis and how to help anyone with an

opioid addiction.]

III. Major opioid producers have stopped production of their drugs because of how bad the

opioid crisis has become.

a. The pharmaceutical companies are now realizing the problems they are causing

and are dealing with many legal issues do the rise of opioid overdoses.

i. The makers of OxyContin, the world’s top selling painkiller, said that they

will stop marketing heir drugs to doctors. The reason for this is because

of the large number of lawsuits filed against them for starting the current

opioid epidemic. They are reported to cut their sales in half and start

focusing on other medications.

addiction and are seeking ways to help them.

i. Some advice for someone who is trying to help an Opioid addict is not

negatively enable them. This means not to provide them with money or a

place to live. Making their lives easier just because they have an addiction

only enables them to keep abusing drugs.

ii. Another tip is to seek out outside support such as qualified professionals

and support groups. They have the proper skill set to help and offer

guidance for people struggling with addiction.

iii. Finally, make sure other family members and friends are aware of the

situation. If everyone is doing their best to help, it would be more

efficient in getting the addict proper treatment.

[Transition: with this knowledge of why pharmaceutical companies are cutting their sales and

now know how to help an opioid addict, I hope you understand how big of a problem the opioid

crisis is in America and how important it is for our generation to end it.]

Conclusion:

I. Summary of main points

a. Today, I talked about the dangers and importance of knowing about the opioid

crisis in our country, where these drugs are coming from, where this epidemic is

most prominent, and how to help anyone you know who is struggling with this

problem.

II. Restate Thesis Statement

opioids such as heroin, fentanyl, and painkillers, and affects almost everyone in

the united states.

III. Clincher

a. The Opioid Epidemic is the leading cause of death in our country and it is up to

our generation to put an end to this nightmare.

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