Felicia Lee, Serena Cai, and Emily Lau
The wicked problem we are addressing is the opioid crisis in Pennsylvania. It’s the number one public health and safety challenge in Pennsylvania, and an average of fourteen Pennsylvanians die every day from overdose.
The opioid crisis originally started in the mid-1990s when OxyContin, a painkiller produced and promoted by Purdue Pharma, was released and heavily over-prescribed as a painkiller medication. This led to a steep increase in the abuse of legal prescription opioids, which led to the first wave of deaths in the opioid crisis. Starting then, there was a steady increase in overdose deaths involving prescription opioids. However, it wasn’t until 2011 that public healthcare systems took notice and tried to decrease the prescription of opioid painkillers.
After that, there was a large expansion in the heroin market that intended to attract existing addicts, since they were already chemically dependent on opioids and were seeking a substitute. Recently, there has been an acceleration in deaths from opioids such as fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine since drug traffickers were looking for drugs that are cheaper to produce in large quantities and smuggle.
This map is part of the Carnegie Mellon University exhibition and interactive session organised by Luis Garcia, Structured Systems Mapping: Cultivating a practice of critical reflection and collaborative exploration.
Access the folder of full-resolution maps.
