How about we napalm the poppy fields of Afghanistan?
The author’s solution: government databases, government programs, more laws to make people into criminals, government funding.
“There are three drugs used to do this: Buprenorphine, Methadone and Naltrexone. These drugs suppress symptoms of opioid withdrawal and decrease cravings for opioids. It helps patients stay in treatment with commensurate reduction of illicit opioid usage.”
a. Not always. Didn’t work for my Ex. He’s still on opioids, prescription and street. It DID help his son, who now runs a half-way house for other recovering addicts. He can’t seem to help his Dad, though. :(
b. ALL of these drugs are, in some way, paid for by Taxpayers. Same with Narcan (sp?) which stops people from OD-ing on Heroin. Didn’t work for our Nephew, though. Died at 19 of a Heroin overdose. I totally realize that SOME people DO need pain meds due to chronic conditions and use them responsibly, however, the vast majority do not.
c. I’ll pay for your drugs or your drugs to get you off of drugs, when you buy Top Shelf Vodka for me! ;) (I’m mean that way; I would like to see, in just ONE instance, a return on my CONFISCATED tax dollars!)
d. The answer is NOT more Government Programs! The answer is working on rebuilding Society, which was set up to begin with to give young people roots and wings. But, due to Socialist policies at ALL levels of government, I don’t see THAT happening again in my lifetime.
e. I have no answers. And I’ve been on the Front Lines of this issue in my own (destroyed due to addiction) family. *SHRUG*
I agree with the author that these drugs are a huge problem and getting worse, however, I must disagree with one of his solutions. Having worked in a State hospital for many years I witnessed the misuse of methadone on a regular basis.
The users would go to the clinic early each morning, get their methadone and go across the parking lot to their dealer and get their preferred drug. The methadone took the edge off any withdrawal and allowed the user to get the “full” benefit from the street drug. I wish it were different but it wasn’t.
I have about the same level of concern as I did for the crack epidemic. Prison or death were good enough then, they’re good enough now. Of course, I realize the changed demographic makes that distasteful to many.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/27/americans-consume-almost-all-of-the-global-opioid-supply.html
"Americans are in more pain than any other population around the world. At least, that's the conclusion that can be drawn from one startling number from recent years: Approximately 80 percent of the global opioid supply is consumed in the United States."
Life Expectancy In U.S. Drops For First Time In Decades, Report Finds
U.S. Life Expectancy Falls for First Time Since 1993.
http://reason.com/blog/2016/12/08/us-life-expectancy-falls
How Obamacare Is Fueling America's Opioid Epidemic
http://time.com/4292290/how-obamacare-is-fueling-americas-opioid-epidemic/
Can we now expect the people who created the problem to fix the problem?
I would love to see a pain medication that actually works to reduce pain.
When I broke my arm several years ago, I was prescribed Oxycodone. I took it, and had little or no reduction in pain. So I took more of it, and still had little or no reduction in pain. I took the maximum dose allowable per the product literature, and still had minimal relief from the pain. However, there were other side effects that made the drug almost intolerable... and it ended up giving me a raging headache.
I think my experience is not unusual. People want relief from pain, and the prescribed opiates just are not very effective for that. So they take more and more. Some become addicted from it, I think because opiates have a euphoric effect in some people.
In the current opioid epidemic, what is happening is that opioids are very heavily prescribed, and that some people will become addicted through the process I described above. The price of prescription opioids is quite high, though, ~$40 per pill, according to a recent Opioid Summit I attended. So these people turn to a cheaper alternative--morphine, most of which originates in Mexico. The morphine is still expensive, so many dealers cut it with fentanyl--which they make themselves or obtain from an illicit lab. The fentanyl is even more potent than morphine. Carfentanil is a derivative of fentanyl that is about 100 fold more potent than fentanyl. The use of carfentanil is increasing, because addicts are looking for stronger drugs as they become resistant to the drugs they are addicted to.
The figure I saw at the Summit was that ~3600 people per day in the US receive a potentially addictive prescription of opioids. I don't know what proportion of them actually go on to become addicted.
As a chronic pain person, I do not care about people who abuse the drugs. I suffer every day because of these people. You have to thin the heard some how......
Limiting the dose and number of pills prescribed would at least create consistency and clarity for patients, pharmacies and prescribers. The PDMP has been effective in reducing the doctor shopping issue.
As for terminal patients, and those with chronic pain needling high doses, exceptions can be managed. Morphine pumps can deliver high doses without risk of diversion. Those that cannot have pumps for one or another reason could still get high dose opioids but they could be seen at a certified pain clinic where strict protocols would be implemented.
The way I see it we could have 3 tiers.
Short low dose prescriptions for acute pain.
Chronic pain management with dose caps (90 MME level?) with monitoring UDTs, pill counts, PDMP checks, specified appropriate indications.
Exceptional pain management for terminal patients and hi dose chronic pain with increased frequency of monitoring, mandatory psych consult, registered pain clinic.
Now that the government is heavily involved, they have to have very specific rules for providers. Without specific rules, most providers and pharmacies will be reluctant to participate because of regulatory risk that is enormous when rules are vague and providers are subject to capricious prosecutorial and bureaucratic abuse. This creates an artificial scarcity of providers that harms patients.
In my view, the government likes the uncertainty. Patients lose access to opioids for chronic pain. Conflict is created between patients physicians and pharmacists. Prosecutors and bureacrats have more easy targets.
Drug addiction, obesity, smoking . . . it’s all the same.
It’s a character flaw. Face up to it.
“Oh but my ..... is addicted. You don’t know ....”
Horse hockey-
Just stop. Do what’s right.
It’s not my problem, so don’t ask me to pay for it, in ANY way. Higher taxes, policing etc . . . .
The Lord forgives. Lot’s of us earthlings don’t.
ANOTHER FAKE CRISIS TO CON MORE TAX $$ FROM FEDS BY CITIES, COUNTIES AND STATES@! SECURE THE BORDER!
So the CDC says there are 3x the amount of opioid prescriptions than BEFORE our government took control of the world’s source of opium, but this is all still a mystery?
Quite a lucrative slavery racket the medical/insurance racket has.