An issue that I think needs to be brought to a public audience in the opioid epidemic that is rapidly spreading throughout the United States. This is an issue that has been talked about more frequently in our day, but I feel that there is still not a lot of awareness of the drug, and that it is only viewed as being dangerous when it applies to heroin. I am from New Jersey, a state that has an increasing problem with opioid addiction and overdose. According to New Jersey news websites, one-thousand nine-hundred people died from opioid overdoses in New Jersey in 2016; this is a number that is spiking. Our current governor, Chris Christie, has been verbal about this problem, but as someone living in the state, I have not seen that much improvement or awareness being brought to the attention of New Jersey residents. In my opinion, the biggest factor in this increase of overdoses and addiction has to do with the fact that doctors prescribe opioid painkillers to patients like they are candy. These patients take these pills over an extended period of time and form an addiction, turning to heroin and more invasive ways of inserting the drug into their system, by snorting it or injecting it. There is not enough coverage on the dangers of prescription opioid drugs, and I think that this needs to be brought up through a longform essay.
I think that the most effective way of getting this message across to an audience is through the platform of using a TED talk. In this modern society, most young people are using YouTube, where TED Talks are reposted for viewing purposes. I do not know a lot of people that actively listen to podcasts, so I do not think that would reach a wide audience, and I feel that there is not enough material to be presented to create a documentary or film. There are also lots of films and documentaries that are shown in high school health classes, and I do not think those have been quite effective in raising awareness and educating the youth of America.
The structure of my longform multimedia essay would start off with the narrator talking about what opioids are; not just heroin, but also drugs like oxycodone and vicodin. I think that including statistics is also very important, that way there is a research aspect to this “essay.” Facts and numbers make it more real for viewers because they are not just being told why something is wrong and bad, they are being presented with real-life information supporting the fact that opioids are highly dangerous.
Something that I think is important when presenting information as sensitive as drug addiction and drug abuse is that it is presented by someone who has had a first hand experience with it. I would want someone who is a recovering opioid addict to give the TED Talk, preferably someone who got hooked on the drug through prescription drugs, that way my argument is further supported just through the person presenting the information.
After somewhat of an introduction to opioids, I would want my TED Talk to go into its narrator’s own story with drug addiction and abuse, using it almost as a scare tactic. Drugs like heroin are not meant to be fun and games; they are scary and dangerous and should not be taken lightly. I think that personal experience is very important when presenting information to a large audience, because it makes the speaker more relatable and seem more human, rather than someone standing in front of you telling what to do and what not to do. I also think that it is an important part in making this an essay because an essay should be personal to some type of extent depending on the preferences of the author. I have always found that presentations in high school stuck with the students more when it came from someone who actually experienced what the topic of the presentation is focused on.
I would want the personal aspect to take up most of the TED Talk, but I would want it to be officially concluded with some sort of plea to become more aware of what prescription drugs are doing to the human body and the negative effects that they have.
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