Possible Solutions to Opiod and Healthcare Crisis

Children for so many years have been taught to stay away from drugs such as tobacco and weed, but in today’s day and age the scariest drug might just be the ones prescribed by doctors. Drug overdoses from prescription drugs is a current public health concern for the main reason that it is a direct cause for the declining life expectancy in this country (Haskins 2019). The opioid crisis is one that has plagued America for almost three decades, but the consequences of this problem are starting to take effect on the citizens of America. The article on the opioid crisis written by Julia Haskins, “opioids tied to ongoing fall in US life expectancy, discusses and analyzes the problem as a whole and explains the specific causes for this public health emergency. Not only does it describe the issue at hand, but the article goes into detail about what solutions need to be put into place to put an end to such a problem. This is an extremely difficult situation to find an answer to due to the fact that there are so many health benefits that come with taking prescribed medicine. The problem lies in those who are able to misuse these drugs, which eventually harms the patient more than it helps them. The use of prescription painkillers, such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and morphine, increases a person's chance of using more harmful opioids, like heroin and fentanyl, significantly (NIH 2019). The issue of opioid abuse in America should be of the utmost concern for the public health community because so many citizens use prescription drugs meaning anybody can be impacted by this devastating problem. I definitely believe that something needs to be done as soon as possible solely due to the fact that so many people are dying or overdosing on these prescription drugs. The best way, in my humble opinion, to attack this issue is to take power away from pharmaceutical companies that have so much power in our political sphere. The first plan of action is to put policies in place that take away big pharma’s ability to lobby specific candidates running for president. That will allow laws to be made stopping pharmaceutical companies, and the public health community should be attempting to make this a reality.

Public health, defined by the book “Public Health 101,” is “providing services for vulnerable populations or those at higher than average risk of disease and/or bad outcomes of disease, either directly or through the healthcare system” (Riegelman, 2019). It can be clearly seen that the opioid crisis falls into the category for public health aid or support. The word that should be focused on, in the definition previously mentioned, is vulnerable, especially in this specific situation. The only painkillers readily available as well as legal in the United States are those that are prescribed by doctors. Those same painkillers are not only highly addictive, but can lead the use of more hardcore drugs, like heroin or fetanyl. Currently in the United States, four out of every five citizens addicted to heroin or fentanyl started as addicts of prescription painkillers (Kolodny, 2015). The reason that vulnerable is such an important word in the definition of public health is because many heroin users switched to the drug because over the counter painkillers are much more expensive than the cheaper, more addictive opioids. This is an example of how socioeconomic disparities can impact those with a lower income than those who can afford prescription drugs. Obviously both classes have similar chances to get addicted to prescription drugs, but those with a lower socioeconomic status are more likely to switch to the cheaper alternative of opioid. Since 2016, the opioid death rate has increased by over 50%, which is a big jump over three years and can not be taken lightly by public health officials (Haskins, 2019).

Not only is this a matter of ethics regarding public health, but the problem is taking a toll on the United States economy. Since a majority of the people who are addicted to prescription drugs in this country are using health care that is funded by the state and the federal government, tax payers are taking the biggest hit economically from this crisis. Every year “prescription opioid misuse in the United States costs $78.5 billion, including the use of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement” (NIH, 2019). A majority of that money is coming from taxpayers pockets, which is more reason for citizens to push for some kind of change. In my opinion, this is the biggest incentive for those not involved in public health to start getting involved in issues like these. Informing the public on how big of a problem this is ethically and economically could help incentivise those who previously did not know about the problem.

The peer reviewed academic journal that supports my opinion is “The Prescription Opioid and Heroin Crisis” (Annual Reviews, 2015). The main points they make in this article that support my opinions are the facts and solutions to the prescription drug crisis. The public health aspect of the argument is consistent within the article and in my essay. As previously stated the definition of public health is “providing services for vulnerable populations or those at higher than average risk of disease and/or bad outcomes of disease, either directly or through the healthcare system” (Riegelman, 2019). The definition explains that bad outcomes from diseases or addictions makes it a public health issue, and according to the article, “Accidental opioid overdose is a common cause of death in individuals suffering from opioid addiction” (Annual Reviews, 2015). The deaths in this case is a clear “bad outcome” to these costly addictions for those who can not continue to afford their addiction to the highly expensive prescription drugs.

The solutions that could be put in place to slow down, or even stop, the consequences of the prescription drug addiction crisis are mentioned throughout the article and are similar to those mentioned in my essay. The article breaks it down into three different categories of prevention, primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. The primary prevention mentioned in the article involves cutting off the problem and stop it spreading from generation to generation. Since prescription drug addiction is chronic and can last a lifetime, it can be contained to a final generation of Americans. The way to do this would be to make sure health care officials are prescribing painkillers more cautiously for any kind of pain occurring in a patient. The secondary prevention method mentioned is to “screen for a health condition after its onset but before it causes serious complications” (Annual Reviews, 2015). This solution will make it more difficult for people to obtain prescription drugs and make it so prescribed drugs are more accurately distributed to the right kind of pain. The final or tertiary method of prevention is for those who are already impacted by prescription drug addiction. The goal is to provide rehabilitation and therapeutic sessions for those who are currently addicted to opioids. This involves making it easier to access these things through healthcare systems provided by the federal government and the state.

These solutions may or may not have an immediate impact, but it could easily have long term containment to the problem. No matter what, the start has to happen somewhere and the solutions mentioned by the article and myself are a good place to start. This crisis needs to be talked about more to spread awareness to the public and incentivise for the people of the United States to lobby for change in this country. Without citizens speaking up, there is no reason for the federal government to try and fix this epidemic. Finally, and most importantly, people are dying due to this problem and that should be of the utmost priority.