Author: Adriana Larreinaga (Page 1 of 4)

My interest in this topic began since I saw a documentary called “The Pharmacist” which is about Dan Schneider, a small-town pharmacist in Louisiana, to identify his son’s killer. His son was killed while he was trying to buy crack in New Orleans. This led Schneider to gather evidence against a Doctor in New Orleans, owner of a pain management clinic who was prescribing great quantities of Oxycontin in which Purdue Pharma was the one that developed this addicting pill. Why prescribe opioids if there is a factor in which people will become addicting? Why is this still allowed? These were just some of the questions that came to my mind as I watched this. This perhaps is  the delineation of why there are so many Americans on the streets being drug addicts. One day going home on the subway platform there was a man with so many rashes and marks and I saw he was injecting himself with something. Seeing this was very indignant because we as society do not realize the major problem of opioids and addiction. Therefore, I want to further learn about this topic as well as inform people how crucial it is to understand and learn more about how Pharmaceutical companies are the major influencers to opioids addiction in the U.S. 

During my research I expect to find arguments against pharmaceutical companies and how different people have been affected by the opioids business. Having some narratives will help the reader to connect more to the topic and understand better how opioids can change people’s lives Also, I expect to find statistics showing the number of Americans that are dying of overdose. Moreover,  find arguments of failures of the regulatory agencies, federal agencies and state agencies to control this epidemic and the counterarguments which are the federal agencies defending their acts on how they are regulating the pharmaceutical companies. But is it enough? If I find information that goes completely against what I expected to find I will definitely try to counter it and find a way to defend my argument. I will do further research and try to validate my argument with proper evidence. Thus, some of the genres that will give me some good information are articles which can give me some good evidence to support my argument. Also, having narratives can be very helpful to show people experiences with opioids which I can find such as documentaries or written. 

Topic- How has the pharmaceutical industry led to an opioid crisis in America?

K-Know: 

• The pharmaceutical industry have been prescribing painkillers which are opioids to people in vast amounts not realizing they are making people more drug addicts 
• People who are in control of this industry have million dollar contracts 
• Oxycontin is a very popular opioid in America 
• They destroy families and kill people

W-Want: 

• What type of possible solutions can there be for the irresponsibilities of the industry ?
• What type law regulations is there for Pharmaceutical companies?
• Where to go if you see a victim suffering from this crisis?
• What are some of the opioids that are most prevalent in America?

L-Learned:

• More than 130 Americans die everyday from opioid overdoses
• 75% of the people who uses heroin had started by using prescription opiates
• Purdue Pharma with their painkiller oxycontin that revolutionized how opioids were marketed
• Perdue Pharma has earned more than $35 billion from Oxycontin sales 
• There are so many failures of the regulatory agencies, federal agencies and state agencies to control this epidemic. 

+-Still want to know:

• If opioids are one and the single most dangerous medication why are doctors still prescribing it?
• Why is the government not regulating these pharmaceutical companies? 

As a kid, I have always been in love with art on how fascinating it is to create something on a two-dimensional surface and have infinite creativity and create new things. In my sketchbook, I would sit and draw the surroundings. I would draw the “dream home “ I wanted and how I wanted my room to look. Also, from what I remembered I enjoyed playing with Legos. I would spend hours playing with them and come up with some crazy abstract ideas. However, I never thought that those “dream homes” I used to draw would turn into the love for architecture that I have until this present day. When I came to America I became more exposed to architecture and more eager to learn about it. My uncle is an architect and I could say I was very much influenced by him. I would ask him questions such as how he did those plans in that software and how to start a design process like that. I became even more intrigued. I began to do my research on the different architects and the styles in architecture in which I was inspired by Zaha Hadid- a British architect who was the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize. As an architect, she was able to go against what is traditional architecture which falls under the Descontructivist style which I would try to incorporate in my work as an architecture student. Likewise, I began to watch Youtube tutorials on how to use different software, in particular Sketchup and Autocad. I would explore and learn some tips and the basics of using those programs and I still learn and practice on my own because that is the only way I can master the programs. Yes, the professor can teach you some things but will never have all the time to teach you everything to know and that is one of the reasons why I prefer to also do my research on my own. The professor is just a guide to a certain extent. But, it is important to go beyond and do more research and make our proper conclusions. For instance, the professor will assign a reading for homework and some people will just read that specific article and call it a day. Though, I often try to also do my research and look at different articles in which I end up learning even more.