Opioid Crisis Editorial Cartoon

By: Ben Joshi

Editorial Cartoon Artist Statement

Originally I drew this cartoon to talk about the issues surrounding the opioid crisis.

Lately on social media, and in many news outlets, the opioid crisis has been mentioned. Specifically

in recent times the crisis has gotten to a point where the judicial system is taking action towards

this issue. Due to the popularity of the issue, I choose to draw a cartoon that represents how the

crisis is affecting both patients and doctors. In addition to the popularity of the topic, I choose

to cover the opioid crisis, because I have been offered the drug myself from doctors. Although I

may not have been prescribed an abusive amount, it was still shocking to know that doctors

recommend a drug that had so many negative connotations tied to it.


When drawing the cartoon itself, I tried to cover the major aspects of the opioid crisis, and

exemplify the message. In the news and on social media platforms, it has been shown there are

addictive tendencies caused from over prescribing patients, and in extreme cases death. In the

medical field, doctors are able to manipulate pricing by over prescribing patients, and

fluctuating the pricing of the drug needed. To show this I drew a doctor holding a bag of

opioids and a bag of cash. This furthers the message by showing that in return for prescribing

opioids, money if reverberated. I also drew the doctor smiling to show that he encourages the

over prescribed drugs to patients in return for his own profit. In addition to the doctor, I drew

a grim reaper to represent the deaths tied to the drug. To add a slightly humorous feeling, I

had the grim reaper saying “you’re killing it!” I believed this was ironic because the grim reaper

himself represents death, and he’s hyping up the doctor to further this ideal. I also had the doctor

state, “I know right!” I thought this would represent the fact that doctors that over prescribe their

patents are typically knowledgeable of their actions.



What I learned from drawing and taking part in the editorial cartoon process, was how to take

an idea surrounding a social topic, and display it in as an image. It was a different thought

process then normal versions of journalism, because instead of being able to go into finite

detail about the topic, you had to display the message with a few characters or aspects that

surround the topic being displayed. Overall I thought the editorial cartoon process was really

fun because you're able to exaggerate the message being displayed, and this is seen as a norm

when drawing these types of political cartoons.