“Millions of Unnecessary Opioid Pills Prescribed by 5 Doctors”
This article is from The New York Times and is titled “Millions of Unnecessary Opioid Pills Prescribed by 5 Doctors, Prosecutors Say”. This article addresses the Grand Challenges of Valuing World Cultures and Understand the American Experience. This article was written by Benjamin Weiser addressing and talking about the continued opioid problem we have to face here in America. It reports about five doctors who have been charged with taking more than $5 million in return for prescribing millions of oxycodone pills to patients who had no medical need for them. Another doctor, accompanied by his nurse practitioner, prescribed 3.3 million pills that were paid by Medicare and Medicaid over a three-year period. These cases highlight the ways opioids are aggressively marketed and have contributed to a national epidemic that killed around 72,000 Americans last year.
This article raises many questions that are perfect for my health enhancement classes. The first question that might come to mind to some of the students is, “Why are so many people becoming addicted to these drugs?” This would be a perfect question to lead into a discussion about the effects of the drugs and what happens to the body when taking the drugs, along with the addictive nature of them. Another question that might arise from students is, “How do people get these drugs? Why are doctors giving them out if they don’t need them?” This also is a great question to be asked and to lead us into a discussion about the desire the drugs make you go into to have them. Stealing, corrupted doctors, sell-outs, etc. A discussion that can come from this article is also how the use of opioids can lead to the use of other drugs to reach the desired effects that the users are chasing. A lot of good can come from this article in terms of my health enhancement classroom.
A strategy I think I would use for this article is the ‘student questions for purposeful learning’. I think this would be an effective strategy because it would help give them a direction for them to question and then it will lead into answers and a great discussion. After reading the article I can project a statement like, “Opioid epidemic being led by doctors and drug companies.” This statement would get my students questioning and curious. They would then pair up with a partner and come up with questions related to the statement I have. After they have their questions, we would work through the class asking the questions, writing them on the board, starring the questions that are repeatedly asked. Then they would use the information from the article to go back through and see how they could answer the questions they have presented.
Like I said earlier, I think this article would be terrific for a middle school or high school health enhancement class, going over the following content standards:
21. Evaluate the validity of health information, products, and services;
23. Determine the accessibility of products and services that enhance health;
29. Examine barriers that can hinder safe and healthy decision making;
44. Work cooperatively as an advocate for improving personal, family, and community health; and 45. Adapt health-related messages and communication techniques to target audiences.
