
“...someday..., we'll medicate human experience right out of the human experience.” (Lehane) This seems to be becoming more and more of a reality each and every day in the Mormon community. Opiate drug addiction in the Mormon community has been a rising problem in Salt Lake City, Utah in the recent years. Besides a small dip in 2008, the increase in prescription drug related deaths has sky-rocketed upwards of 400% (Ling).  The death toll increase is not the only problem that is coming along with this prescription drug abuse, along with people becoming addicted; families are being torn apart, severe problems within the Mormon community have began to arise, heroin abuse is increasing, and all of this is due to the “Zion Curtain” that the Mormon community has created within itself. This “Zion Curtain” has made the Latter Day Saints feel as if it is acceptable to take abuse prescription drugs, and that is not the case.

Salt Lake City has a percentage of 51.41% Mormons of a population of 191,180 (Canham,).  With so much of the community being a part of the Latter Day Saints Church, this is where the “Zion Curtain ( Robb 2014)” is created. Essentially, it boils down to the stress of the LDS (Latter Day Saints) Church putting onto all of the members to live up to perfection. The church allows absolutely no drugs, whether it be coffee, nicotine, or alcohol to be ingested by the members. This management of the members private lives creates a stress that builds up and without a way that many other people naturally release it; it bottles up until they find something that fits into a grey area. This perfect lifestyle expectation of the church with no release makes the members feel that anything that they do that the church says is not acceptable is not only wrong, it also forces them to feel that they have let the church, and their families down (Hewes,). In this episode of Drugs Inc, a member of the Mormon Church, Dannika, explains the “Zion Curtain,” although not referring to it as this, she explains it indirectly. She tells all in the sense that she is an addict, and claims that this perfect lifestyle creates much too much stress, and forces these people to find an escape. That is where the “Zion Curtain” is a key for this religion. This curtain is where the prescription drugs fall behind and these members take the curtain, peel it back, and like the escape that they see. A previously mentioned, the members of the church do not allow the members to ingest things that they deem as drugs, as stated earlier in the essay, the Mormons do not believe in alcohol, nicotine, or even caffeine (Reiss). These things were mentioned in the The Book of Mormon, and this is an extremely authoritative text: this means that what it says in the text is exactly what it means, no swaying from it. However, in recent years, with the progress of modern medicine, and The Book of Mormon not being able to be updated, the grey area of prescription drugs is formed. When Joseph Smith, the creator of the Mormon religion, passed the adding to the book died. In conclusion to this paragraph, the “Zion Curtain” and grey area of prescription drugs tempts these Mormons struggling with the perfect lifestyle that is expected of the Mormon followers.

With many of the followers struggling with the perfect lifestyle they are urged to follow, the temptation tempts not only meager people of faith, it tempts even devout middle aged women who have been a part of this community since they were young. “Maline Hairup was a devout Mormon. No alcohol, no coffee. She didn’t smoke. Until the day she died, she had never used illegal drugs. Yet she was an addict for most of her adult life (McGreal 2016).” This is a perfect example of how the “Zion Curtain” works, and also a perfect example of how this drug addiction within this community shows no mercy on who it sucks in. Hairup claimed before passing that she was not addicted, it was okay, but she was on them for fifteen years never doubting this sudden change in this lifestyle. She died as another statistic at the age of twenty five, becoming one of the one in three Utahns addicted to some sort of opiate. After the fifteen year binge of opiate prescriptions, the doctors eventually stopped supplying her with these drugs. She soon turned to the cheaper version, heroin.  Hairup’s father, and brother are also addicted to opiate prescription drugs, and on the same path as their family member. Another example of a devout member of the church becoming addicted is a high priest group member’s son, Denver. Denver’s father, Dan Snarr, says, “The LDS church is a big part of it. I go to church every week and I see where the challenge is. They make people feel that they should be perfect and they feel inferior, like they can not live up to the standards of what they expect them to live up to. So they start using prescription painkillers not to address pain, physical pain, but the mental issues that go along with feeling inferior. That you just cannot cope with all the things you’re expected to be and to do” (McGreal 2016). Another testimonial is from someone who was outside of the church, which shows that this problem is not just one within the church, but also one for the community in general. Erin Finkbiner, grew up in Salt Lake City and always saw the church push the sense of perfection , and the others being pushed would in turn push Finkbiner. This pushing would keep Finkbiner from making friends growing up, claiming that she could not play with other kids because she was not a part of the LDS community. She began experimenting with prescription drugs because it was looked down upon much less than the other drugs due to the “Zion Curtain,” and eventually was arrested. Her mug shot appeared online and she soon was shunned. She began abusing more than ever and soon overdosed. People who succumb to the vulnerability of opiate temptation often do something that family members, and users use a method to supply their addiction known as doctor hopping. This is a method that many users employ so that they can feed this monster of addiction ruling their life. Doctor hopping is when a user will go to one doctor, get the said doctor to write them a prescription, and then proceed to go to another doctor to write them another prescription. The users do this so that they can maximize their abuse, their pill count and ensure that they always have constant supply. Originally when Oxycontin hit the market, it was advertised as a low addiction substance, and doctors were told “do not neglect pain (McGreal 2016),” and this is still a continuous method used by doctors. This is also a grey area for the doctors because it is difficult to tell someone how much pain they are in. 

Due to doctors essentially not being able to tell a patient no, it is an easy thing for one person to walk in, claim they are in extreme pain, and the doctor having to prescribe them with some sort of medication. With the opiate prescriptions seeming to come so easily into the possession of Latter Day Saints church members, the overdoses and deaths seem to be escalating at dramatic rates in this community. “Currently in Utah an average of 23 Utahns die per month of prescription drug overdoses. Since 2000, the number of overdoses in the state have risen over 400 percent (Robb 2014).” This problem has increased so much in the recent decade that in 2012 more people in Salt Lake City died from overdoses than in traffic accidents. That, for many people, put it into perspective on how big of a problem that truly was. Between the ages of 25-34 opiates are the second most abused drug behind alcohol. In 2007 the Utah Department of Health received funding to address these issues of the overdoses and dramatic increases in deaths, and this was effective. It lowered the death rate by 28%, however when this funding ended in 2010, the deaths jumped right back to where they were. The problem seemed to peak again in 2014 when it rose again to a 27% increase. Evidence apparently seems to suggest that with proper funding in public health, the government could save at least fifty lives per year Utah. In Utah there are five leading causes in opiate related deaths; 65% substance abuse problem, and substance abuse problems include those in which the individual was noted as using illegal drugs, abusing prescription medications, or regularly using inhalants at the time of death, 62% diagnosed mental illness, 61% physical health problem,16% history of alcohol dependence or problem, 10% history of suicide attempt (Utah Government). If the government would again put the proper funding into the necessary groups, then it is believed that this would no longer be a rising problem, but instead a more manageable problem. The government would lower the death rate, and help a lot of people out. Without this however, it seems that more and more people are abusing these prescription drugs, running out of money, and turning to the more cheap, more dangerous drug of choice to replicate this high that they seem to continuously chase. Heroin. 

A common problem that addicts face when using prescription opiates is the tolerance and withdrawals that they soon form after frequently using them. “With repeated administration of opioid drugs (prescription or heroin), the production of endogenous opioids is inhibited, which accounts in part for the discomfort that ensues when the drugs are discontinued (i.e., withdrawal). Adaptations of the opioid receptors’ signaling mechanism have also been shown to contribute to withdrawal symptoms” (NIDA). With these receptors becoming more and more numb with each pill the abusers take this is where the big problem of the abuse begins. The users must use more and more until one of two terrible things happen, one, they die, or two they run out of money and begin chasing the cheaper easier to find alternative, heroin.  This is what happened to the two females previously discussed in the paper, Dannika and Maline Hairup, these two chased the high that they could no longer afford. While Dannika was giving her testimony on the show Drugs Inc. the show actually followed her on the process of going to get heroin simply because she was going to her mothers the next day after church. Dannika was explaining the effects that the withdrawal was having on her body, claiming that she was struggling to swallow, her stomach was feeling that she was about to throw up and she was even having problems breathing. She knew that the only way to fix this problem was to go the corner and buy her heroin. This is very dangerous as she explains, these dealers do not care about you, they will sell you whatever that they have, and many times will even sell you the wrong thing. Dannika explains that you also do not know how strong each dose of heroin you are shooting up is, so literally each time you put the needle in your arm to get your “fix” it could be your very last time. A local news station in Salt Lake City, not too long ago even wrote a story about the problems this heroin rise has created with statements such as, " That community problem is a heroin tsunami, United State Attorney John Huber said at a recent news conference, and claims that support the proof that the addiction starts with opiates such as, ‘like 80 percent of users, switched to heroin when prescription pain pills got too expensive.One oxycontin could be $60, $80 where a balloon of heroin which you get the same effect would be about $10 (Lakana 2016).” This article goes on to speak about the sheriff who has been effected by this, with him telling all about many of his family members being taken form him, and even seeing one of his family members struggling and failing with quitting that the person killed themselves after failing multiple times. 

Clearly with so many members of the community seeing this as a problem,  and understanding that it is effecting everyone from the church community to even the sheriffs family, that there must be a way to stop this monster of a drug addiction cycle, and there is some methods that have been implemented for the treatment of this cycle. One of the methods is the commonly recognized methadone clinics, and the other is the newer, not so common form of methadone detox programs. The older method of helping with opiate addiction, has seen many problems with the program. I have found a testimony from a person who regularly attends a methadone clinic, who has been sober for four years, has had a steady job, but has been requesting a lower dose for the last two and a half years that he has been there. This statement has positives and negatives within it. The positives are that this shows that methadone clinics do in fact work with the treatment of opiate addiction, and there are success stories. However, the latter part of that sentence really shows what the methadone clinic lacks. This clinic has not been listening to the patient for over two years, and that is a huge problem, and not only did he say that, but the patient also claimed that the counselors that he has been seeing do not pay attention, and it takes many many hours to even get his dosage. He claims he was late for his wedding because of the four hour wait he had to sit in due to the lack of care of the clinic workers. This lackadaisical behavior of the workers is not the only thing that has been wrong with methadone clinics. For a long time there has been a mistrust of the clinics, this claim from novusdetox.com shows that exemplified perfectly, “Members of the public who know how methadone clinics operate and the sleazy, illegal activities usually encountered around them, are calling for an end to the barbarism of enslaving people to a life of methadone addiction” (Novus). Another problem with the methadone clinic is the fact that they are just providing these addicts with another addiction, still suffering from withdrawals if they never lower their dosage. Now, that is not to say that these clinics do not work, that would be wrong. Of course there are some success stories, such as the person who remained sober for four years after his first methadone visit. It just seems that recently the more successful way to go about things would be for opiate addicts to go through the method of methadone detox, and for the government to supply that money for clinics and put it towards the detoxification of the addicts. Methadone detox is different from a clinic because this allows the patients to come in, and be constantly be looked at and taken care of, to ensure that they are undergoing the proper treatment. This method has real doctors looking after them, and follows the process of; intake, detox, addiction therapy, specialized care, and after care. This process is typically a ninety day process and is much more likely for addicts to sustain a more normal life after. This initially would be more expensive for the tax payer to support, however in the long run it would not be because the people would not have to constantly support the methadone being brought in again and again. 

As research suggests, the problem of perfection, and the problem of no release causes many problems not only for the individual, but also for churches, communities and even the country-with tax payers dollars paying for the clinics. The problems arise when the “Zion Curtain” is allowed in the community, and this needs to be fixed within the Mormon church, or this whole community could see a slow but effective breakdown within it. This community is being hit by a huge surge of problems due to this curtain, and it needs to be fixed. 
