Many drug crimes that are related to opioids and painkillers happen because people are addicted to these drugs. They are very effective painkillers, so they are often used by medical professionals after someone has surgery or suffers a serious injury. For instance, professional athletes are often given them for pain management, and people may use them after being involved in a car accident.
However, these drugs can be highly addictive, to the point that it’s been reported that some two million people in the United States are dealing with addiction or substance use disorders. These reports also note that about 33% of people, though perhaps not addicted to opioids themselves, know someone who is. This shows just how widespread this issue has become.
The ease of obtaining these drugs is a problem
Part of the problem is that opioids tend to be fairly easy to get. More than 50% of millennials say that it would be easy to get prescription painkillers if they wanted to. There are a multitude of ways to do this, from shopping around for different doctors to purchasing prescriptions to simply buying pills from someone else who has a prescription.
The root problem in many cases is that individuals are actually dealing with addiction. They don’t even want to be using illegal drugs, but it’s not something that they feel they can stop on their own. Perhaps they were injured in a car accident, and they had to have life-saving surgery. They used painkillers to recover, and now they can’t shake the habit.
For those who find themselves facing serious legal charges related to these drugs, it’s important to know about all of the defense options that are possible.