Drug-Related Deaths

Among the cremation services offered in Phoenix, AZ are providing help with writing obituaries and access to grief support and resources. The death statistics for drug-related deaths in the United States are increasing dramatically, in large part to the free hand that medical professionals had in prescribing opioids, which are highly-addictive painkillers.

From 1999 to 2017, almost three-quarters of a million people have died from drug overdoses (approximately 130 Americans die daily from an opioid overdose). In 2017, almost 70% of drug overdose deaths involved an opioid. The number of deaths that involved an opioid was six times higher in 2017 than in 1999. Now the chance of dying from an opioid overdose is higher than that of dying in a car accident.

Opioids is a class of drugs that has legal prescriptions (codeine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, oxycodone, oxymorphone, and morphine, which are marketed under brand names like Percocet, OxyContin, Vicodin, and Palladone) and illegal drugs (heroin and illicitly made fentanyl).

As deaths have increased so dramatically over the last 10 years especially, not only have the drug makers come under intense scrutiny for how they marketed these painkillers, but so have many medical professionals, who knowingly or unknowingly fed the addiction crisis, which has led to the fatality crisis.

Everyone is beginning to tighten the reins on the legal prescriptions, but because of the highly addictive nature of opioids, many people who are dependent on them are turning to dangerous and illegal street drugs, some of which are so potent that death is instantaneous.

The face of opioid addiction is all around us. It may be the deacon at church or the principal at school or the highest-selling real estate agent in town. It may be your son or your daughter, or one of the neighbor’s children. Anyone is potentially at risk of developing an addiction to this class of drugs, and, subsequently, being so dependent on them that they take more or they get the street drugs that are replacing them.

At one time, drug overdose deaths were stigmatized because addiction was seen as a character weakness or a moral failing. As the nature of addiction has become better understood and as the complicit role of pharmaceutical companies and medical professionals has come to light, more family members are willing, in the obituaries of their loved ones, to tell the truth of their stories.

One of many examples is what the family of22-year-old South Carolinian Reghan Michelle Berry included in her obituary: “Heroin told her, ‘I can make you feel accepted, I can make you feel alright, I can make you feel worthy, I can make you feel normal, I make you feel loved and I can make you feel nothing and make you feel like everything will be okay.’ What it didn’t tell her was how it would devastate her family and tear it apart, take her job and leave her penniless, take her home and make her homeless. How it would take her sparkle and smile, how it would take her humor and how it would take and take and take until it took her life.”

For information about the cremation services in Phoenix, AZ that can help write obituaries about drug-related deaths, our compassionate and experienced team at Simply Cremation & Funeral Arrangements is here to help. You can come to our funeral home at 16952 W. Bell Rd., #303, Surprise, AZ, 85374, or you can contact us today at (623) 975-9393.