For this part of the assignment, I just want to see ONE PARAGRAPH of your essay (with a References page at the end containing at least TWO different sources) – Due 10/18
Length: 4 pages and one References page
Due date: One draft paragraph due 10/18; Final Draft of full paper due 10/25
Opioid Crisis
Write a paper on an aspect of your choice with regard to the current opioid crisis in the United States.
You might consider the following issues: deaths of despair, the overdose epidemic, synthetic opioids (Oxycontin, Vicodin, Percocet, Subsys, fentanyl, nitazenes), drug companies (Purdue Pharma, Insys, McKesson), drug executives (John Kapoor, the Sackler family), drug companies’ lobbying of the government against regulation of opioids, the Opium Wars of 1839-42 and 1856-60 and China’s role in the manufacture and distribution of fentanyl in the U.S., former FDA officials working later for the drug companies they used to regulate, the role of Mexican cartels in the manufacture of illegal drugs, gender differences in opioid overdoses, new addiction treatments, geographic differences in overdoses, economic downturns and overdoses, the incentives to doctors to prescribe opioids, the role of pharmacies and doctors in the opioid crisis, the mental health crisis and overdoses, and racial differences and overdoses.
The choice is yours (and you are allowed to combine some of the topics above) but make sure your paper is unified and that all your body paragraphs are clearly supporting your chosen thesis. For instance, I would consider writing about the healthcare system’s role in the opioid epidemic (for that I would focus on the drug companies [introduction] and their relationship with doctors [body paragraph 1] and pharmacies [body paragraph 2] to increase their profits [body paragraph 3] while ignoring the effects of addiction [body paragraph 4] to their drugs among the American populace [conclusion]).
You are required to cite at least 3 sources, listed at the end of your paper in a References list.
As always, you can get an “A” on this assignment only if you cite two pieces of evidence in every one of your body paragraphs.