[C&P of comment on related news article]
The real reason why opioids are the big problem in our kehillos is because it’s possible for a non-drinking, non-smoking, Torah-learning father of 8 (or bubbe with 20 einiklech, or the shtarkest bochur in yeshiva) to get hooked unintentionally on heroin.
Here’s how: painkillers. The father of 8 is involved in a car accident, the bubbe gets persistent arthritis, the bochur gets a slipped disc dancing at a chasuna. Let’s say they have poor insurance, or great insurance but a overworked doctor. So instead of getting real treatment like expensive physio therapy, the doctor proscribes Oxycodone, oxytocin, or even regular coedine.
The pills provide relief, but they’ve only been given a certain dose and once that’s over the pain returns. The father can’t work, the bubbe can’t enjoy her day, the bochur can’t learn. It’s too much. So they pester the doc for more, or go to a medicine gemach.
In some of the cases, unwittingly they get hooked. Once hooked, they are an addict. They cannot rationalize, cannot control, cannot resist. It’s no longer bechirah, it’s just a uncontrollable need.
The father finds he needs the pills to function, the bubbe thinks there’s nothing wrong with these pills when she takes about 10 pills for other ailments daily anyway and the bochur knows that without pills he’ll feel terribly sick, start shaking and needs to pop another … just to get through another day.
Once the source of pills stop, they discover a guy who’s can give them fen***** and once they discover pills don’t satisfy, they start inhaling, then snorting, then …
It’s a short road from severe pain and accidental dependence on opiod painkillers to heroin.
And it can and does effect “der shentzer in der bester mishpuchos”.
Wake up yidden!