Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Thematic Content Analysis Of Newspaper Coverage Of The Causes Of The Opioid Crisis, Joseph Daniel Eichenlaub, Essma Nasher

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This nation pioneered modern life. Now epic numbers of Americans are killing themselves with opioids to escape it”[1]. According to the CDC, In 2017 alone, 47,600 people died from opioid-related overdoses [2]. The current opioid epidemic has developed in three distinct waves. Initially there was a sharp rise in opioid overdoses after doctors began prescribing drugs such as Oxycontin, which they were assured by pharmaceutical companies were less addictive than traditional opiates. The second wave began around 2010, when a rapid …