The Overdose Epidemic: What Can Be Done to Stop It?

Gr 7 Up—This powerful video packs an amazing amount of information into 20 minutes. An emergency room staffer sums up the increasing epidemic of drug overdoses perfectly when he says, "There's an expression that some things are worse than death. What happens after someone has been brain dead because of an overdose is in that category." He also states, "I wish kids could shadow me in the ER and see how really bad it is." The recovering teens whose cameos are juxtaposed with doctors Elizabeth Jorgensen and Steve Wexler are articulate and frank about their experiences and the number of their friends who have died. Overdose deaths have jumped from 400 to 40,000 per year in a decade. The film points out that with alcohol, the body tries to fight back by making the user vomit, but opiates, particularly synthetic ones, affect pain receptors, cloud thinking, and suppress breathing, sharply increasing the risk of a coma. While benzodiazepines are less lethal, mixing either with alcohol can be disastrous. (ERs are facing so many victims of synthetic drugs, whose ingredients are a mystery, that treatment is often a total crapshoot.) The film emphasizes that calling 911, telling responders or ER staff what the person took, or providing a sample to help determine what drug has been taken are all covered under most states' Good Samaritan laws. While at times graphic (teens shooting up in their neck or between their toes), this film does as good a job of getting its message across as anything produced for this audience.—John R. Clark, Hartland Public Library, ME