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Maria Villamizar
Kati Lewis
ENGL-2010-014-F15

Chasing the White Dragon

The body surface is warm right now, but not for too long, maple flowers and different
oriental figures decorate an arm that is changing the color from cinnamon to pale, getting cold
like ocean waves at night by a very tight belt that is no longer used to hold those loose jeans he is
wearing. A metal needle is what he seeks with despair leaving black tracks in his veins, trying to
get the dark thoughts out. The heart beat starts to slow down and the ocean waves start to freeze
his touch. His mind right now is a mess because of the chaos in his thoughts but the calm will
come, after chasing the white dragon.
Next day. August 28 of 2014. One silent heading in The New York Times is ignored again
by society, Heroins Death Toll Rising in New York, Amid a Shift in who uses it by J. David
Goodman. deaths from heroin overdoses were higher last year than they have been since
2013.Like nothing have changed in the world, keeping the same habits.
Days keep passing by and the reality is tough, especially to go chasing dragons. With a
vicious to ease, illegal does not sound so bad after all. But is that truly illegal or can we as a
society look it as an illness? But it is hard to explain that to the cops when, well they are just
doing their jobs. Try to explain it to the family, which is harder, they are ruled by our society. So
who has the responsibility to make a better future for these Dragon Chasers? Some people
blame the government, but they are the same as the police, is just their job. On the other side,

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they have the responsibility to make the best for the people and with that responsibility they
could make some changes.
Are they really to blame or does this epidemic we are facing come from something else.
I had a conversation with a sick looking boy who I often saw traveling the same bus line down
town as I. He would shiver involuntarily sometimes. Often wearing clothes much too warm for
the season. He finally admitted to being a junkie after a short while. His story was that of much
of the youth here. He grow up in a middle class family. He did average in school and often
participated in after school sports. His senior year of high school he broke his Femur while
playing football. He showed me a photo of himself before that accident had happened. I could
not believe I was looking at the same person. He later told me that was the turning point for
where he was today homeless and strung out as put in his words. His theory was pharmaceutical
companies had a major part to play in what had happened. During recovery the Drs. Prescribed
he a very strong opiate pain killer called OxyContin. I had heard of this drug before a lot of
people had referred to it as pharmaceutical Heroin. Its street value was outrageous the boy told a
dollar an mg making it extremely expensive. He later told me the doctors stop prescribing it to
him and to a lower grade painkiller and thats when he experienced his first withdrawal. I often
see him in mild withdrawal and he told this was just him well on the verge of getting sick. It was
in college when things turned for the worse his dress stopped prescribing him these medications
and there was no way he could afford this drug on the street. One of his college buddies he was
in a similar situation turned him onto heroin. According to him a balloon of black tar heroin was
three times as potent as one of the oxytocin 80s dress prescribed and it only ran him ten bucks. I
was in shock by this I can understand now why so many people in similar situations here would
turn to this. Conversations like these sadly are common occurrence here. Its a sad truth but

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from what I gather big pharma is benefitting and who knows who else from the nature of this
problem. From my view its a never ending revolving door the pharma get them started on
prescriptions and then they turn to street drugs to maintain a physical addiction. Once they try to
get clean guess who is there to help big pharma and so on and so on.
In the university of Maryland school of social work a paper was published supporting
what this boy on the bus had told me. Increasing heroin dependence is closely tied to prescription
pain reliever abuse, said Dr. Jay Unick, associate professor at the University of Maryland School
of Social Work and author of a 2013 study on trends in heroin- and opioid-related overdoses.
A decade and a half ago we saw a real surge in the availability of prescription opiate drugs in
the US [and a] dramatic increase in the number of people using opiates, Unick said.
Why is it that highly educated professors can so easily see this issue yet we are powerless
to do anything about it? Why I claim that we are still powerless is because of what I see and hear
in the news. A survey of 81 Rhode Island school nurses who participated in a naloxone training
program last year found that 43% of high school nurses who responded reported that students in
their schools were abusing opioids, according to statistics released by the state health
department. Fifteen said they had to call 911 at least once in the past three years for suspected
student substance use or overdose. This is even a problem in our high school affecting our youth
and future of society. Yet we are still fighting what seems to be a failing war against this issue of
dragon chasers.
So , we should as part of a society change our minds and be a little more open about that
and try to see this issue as a health one. And stop spending so much money on criminalization of
drugs. Because as we can see is not helping the illness or the people involved. Also I think we
should stop blaming the name of someone in the government, there is a very large and so many

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groups of people involve, that can help with this issue. Therefore the problem is not the one that
lives in The White House, the problem is the pharmaceutical industry that is making a monopoly
out of it without thinking in the consequences that brings upon society. In conclusion, I believe
this industry should have more regulations and product control than the current status queue that
is in place that is causing this problem.

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Works Cited
Associates Press in Rhode Island, Youth heroin crisis prompts call for schools to keep
antidote on hand. The Guardian, September 12th, 2015 (Web).
Goodman, J. David Heroins Death Toll Rising in New York, Amid a Shift in who uses
it. The New York Times, August 27, 2014 (e.g. Printed).
Sledge, Matt The Drug War and Mass Incarceration by the Numbers. The Huffington
Post. April 8th, 2015 (Web).

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