The Opioid Crisis: What is to Blame?
By Nina Faynshtayn
The Progressive Teen Staff Writer
One of the most prevalent public health emergencies is the opioid crisis, defined as the rapid increase in the use of prescription and non-prescription opioid drugs in the U.S. and Canada. Day after day, week after week, year after year, thousands of people overdose through the usage of these addicting drugs. The most confounding question in today’s society is who do we blame?
Some argue that healthcare providers are the root cause. They are the reason that people find access to such addicting drugs. While studies confirm that the amount of pain people experience has remained consistent since the 1990s, the amount of prescription opioid use has increased. However, individual doctors should not be targeted for the desire to treat patients correctly. Firstly, healthcare providers account for only half of the opioids dispensed in the United States. Some methods of treatment involve the use of opioids, especially in painful circumstances when patients can benefit. For instance, chronic pain is an issue that affects 11% of adults. For some, opioids can ease the burden they carry every day. However, the danger in use is addiction. Additionally, half of all opioid misuse begins with a loved one’s prescription. This one prescription is not the reason there is an epidemic, just as a doctor’s treatment decision is also not the reason there is an epidemic.
I interviewed a board-certified psychiatrist who has requested to remain anonymous through publication. She states that “doctors across the United States are advancing progress in trying to halt the opioid crisis, especially within the psychiatry field.” It is important to recall that overdoses are not the only issue people have to worry about. The administration of opioids with needles can, as stated by the psychiatrist, “boost the prevalence of HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C, which can also lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer.” In the psychiatry field, several methods of treatment are being implemented for opioid addicts. For instance, methadone is a narcotic prescribed to relieve withdrawal symptoms of addicts without causing the associated high. Suboxone is another drug with a similar purpose: to treat adults dependent on opioids. Additionally, when one is in a state of overdose, people can administer narcan, which is an antidote that helps people revitalize others from an overdose.
The blame should not fall onto individual persons who make their own decisions and follow through with the resources given by society. Rather, the blame should fall upon an entire era defined by money — big pharma is the enemy. A study conducted by researchers at Harvard University has confirmed the dangers that have kept people worried across the nation. This study states: “In 2001, Purdue paid forty million dollars in bonuses tied to extended-release oxycodone…Purdue also invested heavily in analytics, developing a database to identify high-volume prescribers and pharmacies to help focus their marketing resources…Patients were offered starter coupons for a free initial supply of extended-release oxycodone, 34,000 of which were redeemed by 2001…Finally, Purdue hosted forty all-expenses-paid pain management and speaker training conferences at lavish resorts. Over five thousand clinicians attended, receiving toys, fishing hats, and compact discs while listening to sales representatives tout the alleged benefits of extended-release oxycodone…Purdue elevated the stakes, spending an estimated six to twelve times more promoting extended-release oxycodone than its competitor Janssen spent marketing a rival opioid…Purdue’s efforts paid off. Between 1996 and 2001, extended-release oxycodone generated $2.8 billion in sales. From 2008 to 2014, annual sales exceeded $2 billion.”
Patients must be prioritized over profits if people desire to see progress anytime soon. Psychiatrists, while their efforts are benefiting individuals, cannot take on big pharma alone. For instance, while the psychiatrist I interviewed stated progress efforts including the prescription of suboxone, according to Robert Feldman from PBS News Hour, “lack of access to addiction treatment drugs like Suboxone can be traced, in part, to the soaring prices, access problems and anti-competitive conduct that has become business as usual in the pharmaceutical industry across the board.” It is crucial for lobbying to take place against big pharma. These large companies owe 80% of their 2015 profit growth to spiking costs of medicine. People deserve to receive the care and medicine they need without being hindered by financial issues, and big pharma must stop its control over society’s medical resources.
