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The use of opioids has led to a national epidemic, where the CDC claims over 932,000 lives were lost in just the United States alone to this drug according to, The Opioid Epidemic Demands Public Health Solutions, Not False Claims About Imigration. Unfortunately it only gets worse as it has been reported that another 1.2 million people are expected to die from opioids by 2029. Just to put it in perspective, the New York Times stated that there was a total estimate of around 650,000 to 850,000 casualties in the American Civil War, so opioids have beat the death count of the Civil War without even firing a bullet. Opioids have been a problem for years now and yet some doctors are still prescribing opioids. In 2017, alone, the CDC reported a total of 191 million opioid prescriptions were dispensed for American patients;with Alabama being the state with the most opioid prescriptions. According to the Whitehouse on September 23, 2022, Joe Biden set a plan in motion to combat the opioid and overdose epidemic by signing a bill that grants the states and territories of the USA 1.5 billion dollars. With this funding U.S. states and territories are expected to increase access for the treatment of substance abuse, remove barriers to public health interventions like naloxone, expand access to recovery support services such as 24/7 Opioid Treatment Programs, increase investment in overdose education, have peer support specialists in emergency departments, and allows states to invest in other strategies that will help save lives in other hard-hit communities; according to the Whitehouse. People have argued against this bill for many reasons, but I for one favor it as a person who has been affected by overdose as these elements could be key for changing the tides of war against opioids. I believe fully though there are many ways to combat opioids and the overprescription of them.

I believe I have come up with a way to help fight against the opioid epidemic. I believe we should place stricter laws against doctors who overprescribe opioids as well as have people be more vigilant of doctors who prescribe a great quantity of one drug for instance, opioids. Since the former president, Donald Trump, announced the opioids crisis to be an epidemic many doctors have taken heat and even faced legal trouble. Many doctors have been sentenced to jail time and have lost their doctor’s license due to their overprescribing of opioids. This is a good thing as it has been reported from a study conducted by webmd in 2020, that nearly 30% of all physicians were receiving kickbacks from big pharmaceutical brands to prescribe certain drugs. In America there is a statute that makes this highly illegal for doctors to do, but why do they keep doing it? Most believe that the incentive is just too good to pass up on which unfortunately has left our medical fields not so easy to trust. This mistrust between the people and the medical field can be displayed by the number of people who are not willing to get vaccinated for Covid-19. This mistrust can lead to countless problems; that is why placing more stricter laws and having more people watch over doctors prescribing activity can help stop the nationwide epidemic. Now not every doctor is accepting kickback payments or is being corrupt in acting in this way, but if we had a person who kept track of lets say 20 doctors in their area they can keep that doctor in line and help that doctor stay away from corrupt activity while weeding out the doctor’s who do conduct corrupt activity. When a doctor displays this corrupt activity he should be red flagged for an overprescription and face suspension that would require a hearing in which he could explain why he has prescribed so many drugs. To further the notion as well if we placed stricter laws against physicians other than the Anti-Kickback Statute this in return will prevent future corruption. Most people believe the Anti-Kickback Statute and Biden’s new policy will cure our nation’s problem although these two efforts help solve the problem in different ways, I believe the idea I came up with will help stop future opioid addiction and overdose.

Another way we can fight against the overprescribing of opioids is by not using opioids at all. With the use of opioids causing several addictions and overdoses; why do we not just stop prescribing the drug? The thing is opioids are the best drug for pain relief available.  So for people who just had a traumatic injury or surgery, opioids feel like a must as it is the only drug that can help suppress major pains. The only problem is the addictiveness and health side effects that come from this drug are astronomically high, so Florida has decided to post a variety of options other than opioids for people to use who are suffering from different pains in different areas on their website which includes; acetaminophen (tylenol), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs(Advil,Motrin, Aleve, etc.), nerve pain medications (gabapentin and pregabalin), antidepressants (effexor xr, cymbalta, and savella), medicated creams/lotions, interventional pain management (anesthetic or steroid injection), and non-opioid anesthesia. Florida is providing their communities with a list of other options besides opioids; so our nation should too. Besides these drugs listed for us by Florida another way we can possibly help people stay away from addiction and overdose of opioids or any other prescribed drug for that matter would be to stop prescribing medication for pain and just let humans endure it. This can allow us to grow a stronger pain tolerance so that over time we can endure greater pains, but this would indefinitely be a painful route. That idea might seem outlandish and out of reach for reality at this point, but it would stop opioid use. Even if we just took a different route though and stopped the production of opioids this would allow people to seek other safer and healthier pain management options.

 Sources:

The Opioid Epidemic Demands Public Health Solutions, Not False Claims About Immigration

https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/prescribed.html

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/09/23/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-new-actions-and-funding-to-address-the-overdose-epidemic-and-support-recovery/

https://www.webmd.com/drug-medication/news/20200221/brand-name-rx-rise-after-docs-get-drug-company-perks-study

https://www.asahq.org/quality-and-practice-management/managing-your-practice/timely-topics-in-payment-and-practice-management/anti-kickback-statute-and-physician-self-referral-laws-stark-laws#:~:text=The%20federal%20Anti%2DKickback%20Statute,by%20federal%20health%20care%20programs.

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