I know this thread's viability has since long passed, but I still wanted to chuck in my .02 for anyone who may read...
Who is to blame for this epidemic? I think
doctors have had a hand in this. The narrative is it begins with an addiction to prescription pain killers that transitions to heroin.
I'll add an experience I had a few years ago when I fractured my shoulder...
-A few years ago I suffered a broken shoulder, and had periodic visits with my specialist-totaling about 4 visits from initial encounter to discharge. At every visit, I was offered another opioid script!
He had great bedside manner, and I appreciated his conservative approach that spared me surgery, but it was alarming. I hadn't used the pain pills beyond the first few days, let alone nearly 6 weeks since the accident!
-Do I think he was intentionally pushing addictive narcotics on me? No.
-Was he trying to make sure I was pain-free and cared for? Yes.
Now, let's substitute in a patient who doesn't sport the macho pain tolerance us motocross riders have, and replay this scenario.
It's not a stretch to see that this would be (and is) the perfect storm for some. They have a low pain threshold/tolerance, they have zero knowledge about how addictive the narcotics they're being prescribed are, and they have a doctor with an earnest desire to care for their patient in every possible way.
Is it any surprise this has become a nationwide crisis?
What's the solution? Ideally, a healthier culture. One more inclined to become more active, eat healthier, and preserve their bodies, especially their joints.
Realistically (unfortunately) I think it requires nothing short of an effort that rivals the Manhattan Project to design a class of pain medications that effectively addresses pain and consequently makes opioids obsolete.
- Studies have shown (go to the CDC's website and read about the topic until your heart is content), and the common narrative is, is that their effectiveness for chronic-pain is moderate at best and most discontinue because the opioids doesn't manage the pain well enough in consideration with the laundry list of side effects.
Beyond the setting of acute pain, opioids aren't ideal for chronic use (the setting which dependency and addiction typically evolves from).
We need better, refined medications.
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As for addicts...
-Are they entirely responsible for the addiction? Or should they be absolved from the responsibility of their actions?
I think a little of both. Should they have tried it? Nope. But once that chemical touches their brain, I believe their brains aren't the same nor ever will be.
A metaphor a M.D., Ph.D (the smartest of the smart) once told me, after you've introduced any drug to your brain it's never the same. It's like placing a layer of paint on a wall. You can never get back to the base layer of paint.
Heroin is incredibly addictive and more powerful than we'll ever know unless we have tried it. Some describe their first experience with heroin as "being hugged by an angel." Yikes.
Here's another personal story to supplement...
-A buddy on my dorm floor in college was eager to try heroin (for reasons beyond me) and he eventually got around to it even after I warned him multiple times that he doesn't know what he's up against.
After he tried it, he was different in many ways. A few years later, he was in and out of jail, etc. Luckily he's almost 2 years sober!
I remember asking him when he knew he was addicted.
....He said, "I knew I was addicted after my first time."
For many, I believe a drug that's powerful enough to set the throws of addiction into high gear after its first use is beyond platitudes of "pulling yourself up by your boot straps." These people need help, both from their families and on behalf of professionals.
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So do we deny these people Narcan?
First, by the accounts of many, this epidemic has touched the lives of many, and it hasn't shown itself to be predominately within a single social or economic class. This affects everyone from the homeless to the wealthy.
I understand it's a black hole of resources and it gums up courts, hospitals, so on and so forth...
...but to deny those who have over-dosed their remedy would be nothing short of obscene!
Can you imagine the protests or riots if major metropolitan areas were to assume a policy? Sure the hospitals would free right up...
Instead...
Morgues, Funeral Homes and Cemeteries would overflow.
This is hardly a solution and it's beyond the realm of what the American public believes in and would tolerate.
Believe me there are plenty of measures that can be taken to tidy up the ledger of what's lost in narcan freebies. For starters, discontinue the billions of dollars in foreign aid. I think that'd pass with relative ease as it'd address a common problem that is beyond political party lines.
For now, let's get people to start taking better care of themselves, doctors to stop liberally prescribing these meds, and let's fund research for new classes for pain medications that doesn't drive someone to descend into a morbid life of addiction.
In the meantime, for God's sake, give the Narcan; and spare us the mosaic of slumped over, dead Americans denied a remedy, and consequently, life.
You don't say that I didn't say?
