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"Let’s say that you haven’t had anything to eat for three or four days. You are starving. Can you feel it? What it’s like to be really starving? What would you be thinking about? You would be thinking about food. You would be needing, craving food. This craving that you feel is the brain’s mechanism that drives you to survive. Its purpose is to make everything else fall away and to force you to focus solely on acquiring what you have to have to live." Quote found here: What it Feels Like to Have an Opioid Addiction  A problem that may not immediately seem obvious that overlaps with opioids is hunger. Hunger in itself is a particularly grievous issue that affects everyone in the community. It leads to numerous growth and stunting issues, in terms of learning and physical growth, the body devouring itself, and so many other problems. To me, it's easily either in the top 5 or 3 global problems that should be solved. Opiates attack on the front of hunger in two ways: The stimulation of the appetite (or lack thereof / bodily resistances) of hunger, and the lack of access to food due to homelessness. Empty StomachOpioids have a proven affect on those who abuse them when it comes to appetite management. The stronger / prolonged / length of abuse of the opioid(s) the person takes, the more they are susceptible to side affects such as vomiting and nausea, along with fatigue which lowers the rate at which we burn fuel in our bodies. Even those who do not experience these side effects, users have reported that the euphoric feeling of opioids and eating results in greater relief, which also leads into overeating. In certain cases, the effects of hunger come secondary due to the alteration of the mind. It affects both the innate desire to workout, coerces a sense of helplessness, and a lack of nutrition due to not wanting to eat a balanced diet. Certain studies even show between 30-70% of those who are addicted or abuse drugs do suffer from the stresses of malnutrition or lack of food. How Opiates affect your eating habits and appetite: HERE Oxycodone's Side Affects: HERE Addiction and Hunger: Intertwined Crises: HERE Scholarly article of Hunger and Addiction #1: HERE Scholarly article of Hunger and Addiction #2: HERE Empty HoMe The coexisting effects that homelessness and food insecurity and how closely they are related to each other can almost speak for itself. But to bring it to perspective of my community, the below interactive maps (links cited lower) of recent years state that:
Opioids are also shown to have linkage between people becoming homeless, due to the sheer neglect of responsibilities and prioritizing the fix over everything else, and those who are already homeless getting fixed on opioids as an escape avenue from the problems of the worlds. Such contexts, in an intersectional angle, can be seen in veterans. They have survived the horrors of war and conflict, only to come back home with injuries and PTSD. It's almost blameless then to see an unfortunate increase in veterans, both and especially without homes, to see them turn to opioids as their way out of pain. It'd be no wonder to think then that if one were constantly hungry, with no roof over our heads adding in the insurmountable amounts of stress that involves, they could get a drug that numbs and takes the pain away. The actual starvation of the body would then go ignored, and catastrophic side effects could occur, including the very death of people just from not knowing they are starving. There would be no reason then too to self improve, to get out of poverty and homelessness. A perfect two-pronged attack. Mercy Housing: 7 Facts About Hunger and Homelessness: HERE Maryland Alliance to End Homelessness: HERE Move for Hunger: Interactive Map: HERE Opioid Abuse and Homelessness: HERE Veterans Experiencing Homelessness: HERE Opioids and Homelessness in America: HERE 
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