By Alex Pietrowski

America has some serious problems, but public attention only seems to flow where the mainstream media goes. And while there certainly is reason to be concerned with the social turmoil and the general tenor of American society today, a far more dangerous and diabolical crisis is tearing us apart from the inside.

This is the opioid crisis which is being fueled by cheap and abundant heroin, a tidal wave of increasingly potent and terribly addictive pharmaceutical and synthetic opioids on our streets, and a deepening spiritual crisis that has so many looking for an escape from the emptiness and pain of life in a culture in decline.

As events and narratives in the mainstream media rise and fall, the opioid crisis continues to gain steam, bubbling just below the surface of everyday life. Taking lives and ruining lives, this is serious, and as time goes by, little pieces of important news come and go behind the scenes, giving those who are paying attention a clearer picture of what’s really happening on this front.

Here are 10 new facts on the most recent developments with the opioid crisis:

1.) Opioids are now the leading cause of death for people under 50.

2.) The rate of overdoses for the teenage demographic surged 20% in 2015 alone, the vast majority of which were related to opioids.

3.) With a 10 day supply of opioid painkillers, one in five people will become long term users. This is how addictive these pills are.

4.) Doctors are getting paid by pharmaceutical companies to write prescriptions. Some 70,000 doctors have received an estimated $46 million in non-research opioid related payments.

5.) In 2015, more than a third of U.S. adults were prescribed prescription opioids.

6.) More than half of all opioid prescriptions are written for those with anxiety or depression.

7.) Dentists and oral surgeons are now major opioid prescribers.

8.) The crisis is being made worse by an international effort to rapidly develop stronger and more addictive synthetic opioids to be smuggled into the U.S.

9.) The United States consumes at least 85% of all the world’s natural and synthetic opiates.

10.) Members of the think tank community are quietly working to turn this epidemic into another foreign war, advocating the military invasion of Mexico.

Final Thoughts

Watching this crisis unfold over time is like watching a garden wither without water in the long hot months of summer. It just gets worse and worse so long as nobody is attending to it. Death is the end result.

There is so much than can be done about this crisis, from stopping the production and distribution of opioids, to offering addicts more effective and affordable treatment options; however, as long as our attention is diverted onto other events, there will never be a united effort to stop this.

Read more articles by Alex Pietrowski.

Alex Pietrowski is an artist and writer concerned with preserving good health and the basic freedom to enjoy a healthy lifestyle. He is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com. Alex is an avid student of Yoga and life.

This article (10 Shocking New Facts About the Manufactured Opioid Crisis in America) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Alex Pietrowski and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.