Persuasive Essay On Opioids

Introduction:

All opioids are highly addictive and dangerous to give to anyone in any type of pain. The promotion of them should be outlawed and the sales restricted and regulated across the United States to those who really need them. Extensive research can conclude that this epidemic is fast growing and effects people from all walks of life. This being every race, gender and age throughout all fifty states, making this problem extremely difficult and unable to isolate toa certain demographic group. These drugs are being prescribed for all types of pain ranging from a simple cavity repair to something as complex as brain cancer. This diversity must be stopped if there is going to be any progress to resolve this problem affecting more than 1 in 3 Americans in 2015 alone. For those currently using opioids it can be very difficult to stop, and that is why so many people are still using. Even if sobered before, there is a very high percentage for relapsing. So the only real solution to see results is to completely outlaw the promotion of opioids, lowering the problem of addiction

for future addicts and thus, lowering the possible amount being available to be sold illegally.
Background Information:
Opioids are the leading killer of adults in the US today. This can be blamed on the fact that they are prescribed for most if not all chronic, postoperative, and malignant pain a person has. They only take about two consecutive weeks in order to become addicting which is also why so many people not previously involved with prescription drug abuse become addicted. Certain states have recently started to provide free programs for rehabilitation and withdraw assistance

for recovering addicts in addition to some insurances covering more plans extending into more drug-centered aid services. Unfortunately despite the new programs and heightened awareness of
how strong these medications are, more and more people continue to become addicted to them because of their still common use for pain relief today.The importance of this issue is very high. Opioids are highly addictive, affecting people of all ages, gender, and races. There is no longer a “type” of person who could be an opioid addict because all demographics are becoming addicted.
Attempted Solutions:
In 2015 Perdue Pharma and the New York attorney general entered into a settlement that was required to limit the sales of opioids. But according to a Vox article headlined Drug companies shipped nearly 21 million opioid painkillers to a town with 2,900 people
between 2006 and 2016 demonstrates otherwise. The article states that in the small town of Kermit, West Virginia with a population of 392 people a single pharmacy received about 9 million hydrocodone pills within two years from out of state. The policy put in place was so post to prevent improper sales of opioids but clearly has failed to do so. Later mentioned in the same article, Lopez states
“West Virginia suffered by far the highest drug overdose death rate out of any state in 2016, the latest year with full data. The state’s overdose death rate was 48.3 per 100,000 people that year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In comparison, the state’s homicide rate in 2016 was 5.9 per 100,000, and its rate of fatal car crashes was 15”(Lopez, Vox).

The New York attorney general again sues Purdue Pharma in 2018 along with several other pharmaceutical companies for improperly marketing and selling these highly addictive drugs and are to blame for the dramatic rise in opioid induced death over the past year. Author Paul Schott proves this with the new information stating,
“The litigation seeks $500 million in damages to respond to an epidemic that led to more than 1,000 deaths last year from opioid-related overdoses, the highest such total on record, according to city officials.
“More New Yorkers have died from opioid overdoses than car crashes and homicides combined in recent years. Big Pharma helped to fuel this epidemic by deceptively peddling these dangerous drugs and hooking millions of Americans in exchange for profit,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio”(Schott, Stamford Advocate).

Since then Purdue company officials have proposed a settlement but it has yet to be determined whether they will cut a deal with the attorney general. A similar case was brought to the Common Pleas Court of Ross County Ohio May 31st of 2017, after the downfall of yet another failed proposed solution from December of 2915 called the “Ross County Heroin Partnership Project Sequential Intercept Mapping and Action Planning” brief. Returning back to the Common Pleas Court case it begins with the reassuring lines “Drug companies should never place their desire for profits above the health and well-being of their customers or the communities where those customers live. . .drug companies must tell the truth when marketing their drugs and ensure that their marketing claims are supported by science and medical evidence” (DeWine, Ohio). This proves that rules were put in place by the state but later goes on elaborate that they were deliberately being disobeyed and evidence of this is later mentioned,
“Defendants broke these simple rules and helped unleash a healthcare crisis that has had far-reaching financial, social, and deadly consequences in the State of Ohio. 3. Defendants manufacture, market, and sell prescription opioids (hereinafter “opioids”), including brand-name drugs like Oxycontin and Percocet, and generics like oxycodone and hydrocodone, which are powerful narcotic painkillers”.
The defendant not only “broke” the rules but in 2012, roughly 20% of the state of Ohio was being prescribed opioid for “chronic pain” according to the same source.

Proposed Solutions:
The policy solution being proposed is that physicians must stop prescribing and administering highly addictive opioids to their patients, and this can be achieved by the government outlawing the promotion of these drugs. There is not need to market these drugs because they are so addictive, they should be considered drugs of “last resort”. The ten most highly addictive opioids according to Desert Hope include; oxycontin, opana, demerol, vicodin, methadone, fentanyl, percocet, morphine, dilaudid, and heroin. As of this year, only two of these ten medications are Schedule I and II by the Drug Enforcement Administration as being highly addictive drugs (DEA). Which means that the likelihood of the other eight medications being prescribed is now much higher and less monitored for highly addictive properties or warning signs for patients. Due to many botched attempts at monitoring the sales of these drugs as previously mentioned the real solution to this issue would be to properly restrict the use of
opioids to only those who need them and for a short period time to prevent addiction. The ability of big pharmaceutical companies like Perdue to properly monitor its sales and ensure that these
drugs are not abused is not difficult. However the impact on its profits will be substantial and that is why sales have not been controlled.
There is some benefit to the medications and that's why they should not be outlawed completely.

Though restricting and monitoring where they go and who they are sold to would alleviate the risk of them being sold on the streets illegally to addicts and also prevents any future addictions from forming. This policy would not criminalize all opioids from being prescribed because there has not yet been a new drug that mirrors the pain relief of opioids without the same harmful effects. Though according to an article from The Guardian entitled Breakthrough brings non-addictive opioid alternatives a step closer says that “ The protein, known as the kappa opioid receptor, is one of four that interacts with opioids, but – crucially – while it can trigger pain-killing effects, it is not linked to problems including constipation, addiction risk and death as a result of overdose” (Davis,

Guardian).
The promotion of opioids them should be outlawed and the sales restricted and regulated across the United States to those who really need them. These pharmaceutical companies should ensure that their products are not being over prescribed by physicians. The Government have strict enforcement with server penalties including criminal penalties if the done prohibit their drugs from falling into the wrong hands.
Works Cited
“A.G. Schneiderman Announces Settlement With Purdue Pharma That Ensures Responsible And Transparent Marketing Of Prescription Opioid Drugs By The Manufacturer.” New York State Attorney General, ag.ny.gov/press-release/ag-schneiderman-announces-settlement-purdue-pharma-ensures-responsible-and-transparent.
DeWine, Mike. Ohio Opioids Complaint. www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Files/Briefing-Room/News-Releases/Consumer-Protection/2017-05-31-Final-Complaint-with-Sig-Page.aspx.
Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration. DEA, 2017.
Hoffmann, Diane E., and Anita J. Tarzian. “Achieving the Right Balance in Oversight of Physician Opioid Prescribing for Pain: The Role of State Medical Boards.” The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Wiley/Blackwell (10.1111), 24 Jan. 2007, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1748-720X.2003.tb00057.x.
Lopez. “Drug Companies Shipped Nearly 21 Million Opioid Painkillers to a Town with 2,900 People.” Vox, Vox, 30 Jan. 2018, www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/1/30/16951316/opioid-epidemic-painkillers-west-virginia-shipments.
Schott, Paul. “New York's Suit against Purdue Pharma Could Have Major Impact.” StamfordAdvocate, Stamford Advocate, 24 Jan. 2018, www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/Purdue-Pharma-sued-by-New-York-City-over-opioids-12519232.php.
“Top 10 Most Addictive Opiates.” Desert Hope, deserthopetreatment.com/drug-abuse/addictive-opiates/.
“What's the Government Doing about Drugs?” DrugWise, 16 July 2017, www.drugwise.org.uk/whats-the-government-doing-about-drugs/.