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Monday, October 9, 2017

OPIOID/HEROIN CRISIS- Some Thoughts


Someone asked on my Twitter account, "What happened to 'this will kill you, don't take it?'" If only it was so easy!

"Just say no" may work for many of us, but the opioid/heroin epidemic's origins does not come solely from people who want to get high, according to health officials and those who study the epidemic.   Many people develop their addiction to opioids from a prescription from their doctor to relieve pain due to an operation or other reason. And predicting who will become addicted is not possible. For some, they may take it and get sick, then avoid it. Others may get hooked in short order. At least one study says that 1 in 16 people become addicted to opioids. So are we to blame someone for taking a prescription under a doctor's orders?

Health officials have been recommending actions to help reduce the epidemic that have been classified as "harm reduction." Needle exchanges to reduce the likelihood of diseases such as hepatitis or HIV. Encouraging the distribution of naloxone to save users from deadly overdoses. Reaching out to homeless addicts to offer treatment.  Each of these measures try to keep the addicted individual alive until they are ready for treatment or can be enrolled in a treatment program.

Keeping someone alive while addicted is one thing. The key is to get the addicted off of opioids or heroin or better yet to prevent addiction in the first place. Treatment needs to be expanded and encouraged. Health officials have been advocating for "medication-assisted treatment" where a medication such as methadone or suboxone blocks opioids and heroin from receptors in the brain so that the individual can live a normal, non-addicted life plus behavioral therapy to help the individual navigate through society. But treatment is not easy. People may fail many times before coming to grips with their addiction.

Many observers urge one further step. That doctors should not prescribe opioids for pain as much as they do or should not prescribe opioids at all. In the heady years of opioid prescriptions, doctors were told that they were not addictive and that they should prescribe 30 to 60 pills per prescription. Those claims obviously turned out to be wrong. There is some consensus that doctors should rely on milder pain relievers such as Tylenol or Ibuprofen for most patients.

Are opioids dangerous? You bet they are. But the fact that not everyone becomes addicted to them puts them in a nether world. Many prescription medicines though are dangerous in certain amounts, over an extended period of time or to certain people. We need to be more careful on how we take opioids. We should take them under a doctor's supervision. And apparently, more doctors need more updated education on the benefits and dangers of opioids.

Are opioids dangerous? The pharmaceutical companies that manufacture opioids apparently did not think so at one time.  But the lack of understanding, and maybe intentionally overlooking their danger, as some people allege, has caused much damage to human lives over the last 20 years or so. That's why the City of Everett, the State of Washington, and the City of Seattle, as well as others, are suing opioid manufacturers to recover the costs to their health systems, police and fire agencies, and social services caused by the opioid epidemic.

But what can we do? One thing we all can do is to talk to our teens about prescription drugs. There is a sense by health officials that many teens view prescription drugs as safe like candy. Let them know that prescription drugs are not for getting high. They are for helping with medical conditions under the supervision of a doctor.

No one action will reduce much less eliminate the opioid epidemic. We all need to play a part. We all need to find ways to prevent addiction.

Here is a show that explains the opioid/heroin epidemic,

NPR The Takeaway:
http://www.wnyc.org/story/addiction-nation-understanding-americas-opioid-crisis

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