Opioids: Addiction, Overdose and Death

Gr 7 Up—Deaths from opioids have jumped 400 percent in the past couple years, according to this program. That number is likely to continue rising because of several reasons. More and more addicts are turning to heroin because it's cheaper, and the drug is often laced with Fentanyl or other lethal substances. Unlike most productions made by the distributor, this one features teens and young adults exclusively. One spokesperson provides plenty of factual information (cost of drugs on the street, the difference between opiates and opioids, how the drugs affect and then alter brain chemistry), while several recovering addicts talk about their experiences of becoming addicted, first to pills and then to heroin. Each narrates the journey into addiction around graphic scenes of drug use, overdoses, emergency medical interventions, and withdrawal. Several moments are extremely grim but need to be seen to get their messages across. The descriptions of constantly chasing the high and of withdrawal are unsettling in their explicitness.