Chasing the Dragon
Each year more people die from drug overdose than from car accidents or gun violence. Approximately one in five high school seniors reports misusing prescription drugs at least once in their lifetime. A national study in 2014 found that that very year 1.4 million people had abused a prescription painkiller for the first time. Most people who start abusing prescription painkillers usually got the first one from a friend or relative.
It’s relatively easy to become addicted to prescription painkillers such as oxycodone. In fact, a person can become addicted with just one prescription. Most users will agree that it is the most addictive drug they have ever taken. And the minute that drug reaches a person’s bloodstream, he or she will lose control of what it does in their bodies. One woman tells how when her doctor could no longer fill her prescription, she started getting it off the street but it was too expensive. It was then that a friend introduced her to heroin. Chemically, there’s little difference between oxycodone, morphine, and heroin. Just that one comes in a prescription bottle.
Contrary to popular belief, many of those whose lives are ruined by drug addiction come from stable homes with good families. Many of them had great childhoods in which all their needs were met, but they took one wrong turn and were hooked. Once that happens it becomes very difficult to get off the drugs.
Many of those interviewed admit that they began experimenting with marijuana at a very young age, sometimes before age 12. Each of them eventually graduated to harder drugs and became addicted while still in their early teens. None of them stopped to think about what they were getting into, they just did it.
One young man compares being addicted to opiates to chasing a dragon; you’re constantly seeking that first high, that euphoria. What used to cause the sensation at the beginning, won’t work after a while and so the person has to take it to the next level. Nobody sets out thinking that he or she will become a needle-user, but everyone ends up walking down that road.
This film was released by the FBI and the DEA in order to present the reality of drug abuse in such a way that young people would think twice before falling into the trap of addiction. The raw truth is presented in unscripted interviews with some of those who have lived with the consequences of addiction. There is a lot of emotions and profanity as they express what really happens when drugs take over the lives of real people.
Every generation seems to have its drug of choice. This generation seems to be obsessed with drugs that have consequences that are more devastating than anything in the past. Watch this provocative film now.
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