Opioid Drug Crisis - Thesis Example

In 2012, the number of individuals diagnosed opioid use disorder was at an alarming two hundred and forty-one thousand. In four years, this number increased by six times to about 1.4 million people. Such numbers indicate the severity of the opioid epidemic in the United States with death due to drug overdose being recorded at sixty-four thousand people in 2016, with synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, opioid painkillers and heroin topping the causes of the drug overdoses (Lopez). The opioid epidemic is currently sweeping over the United States causing untold damage to numerous communities and killing thousands, making opioid addiction one of the worst drug crisis in the countrys history. The major cause of the opioid crisis in America was caused by various factors such the need for doctors to find better ways to deal with pain management, the need for pharmaceutical companies to make profits from such needs and the easy accessibility of opioids and other synthetic opioid related drugs.

The key factor that began the opioid epidemic in America were the pharmaceutical companies. In the nineteen nineties as doctors became increasing aware of the burdens of pain, pharmaceutical companies identified this as an opportunity to push doctors to prescribe opioid for pain management. With the aim of making as much profit as possible, pharmaceutical companies, through the use of misleading marketing about the efficacy and safety of opioid drugs, marketed their opioid drugs as effective and safe for pain management, although research showed that the risks of opioids far outweighed the benefits (Lopez). However, as most doctors were persuaded by such marketing campaigns, more doctors started prescribing opioids for treating all types of pain.

Aside from succumbing to the appealing marketing campaigns of big pharmaceutical companies, doctors also played a major role in the rise of the opioid epidemic. Doctors were under constant pressure from government agencies, advocacy groups and medical associations to treat pain more effectively. Furthermore, doctors were also under pressure to treat patients quickly and efficiently. Within the integrated health care centers, doctors were under immense pressure to treat patients in a timely manner so as to bill insurers at the highest levels while at the same time ensuring that the patients were satisfied (Lopez). Due to such pressure on doctors, opioids provided the perfect solution. Most of the pain problems are complex in nature and require a lot of time and resources to successfully treat. As such, in order for doctors to treat as many patients as possible, situations where doctors prescribed week long opioid prescriptions where only a few days worth was required quickly became the norm. Consequently, patients were often left with a lot of extra medication which led to the proliferation of opioids even in patients whose pain could be treated with milder painkillers.

As the number of opioid painkillers increased, the spread of opioids increased. In fact, according to the CDC website, in 2015 number of opioid pills prescribed in the United States were enough to medicate every person in the United States around the clock for three week (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control). The abundance of opioids meant that the excess pills were often diverted to individuals that did not have prescriptions and ultimately to the black market, which resulted in the increase of opioid addiction cases. Such situations led to crack down efforts aimed at limiting the number of opioid prescriptions. However, such efforts only made the opioid crisis worse.

According to an article published in the Journal of Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy, it is estimated that an average of 100 million people in America suffer from chronic pain (Simon 197). Most of such individuals rely of opioid painkillers to manage their pain, and in light of the risks of opioid painkillers, they would be more suited to resort to other non-opioid treatment options for their pain management. However, such options are usually out of reach or are not covered by most insurance covers. With the crackdown efforts limiting the accessibility of opioid painkillers, over time most of the opioid users began and are continually moving towards other potent types of opioids such as illicitly obtained fentanyl and heroin. However, the reasons for this shift are not only limited to the loss of access to opioid painkillers. Many of the opioid painkiller users due to their opioid addiction are often in search of a stronger high and as a result they turn to stronger opioids for a stronger high as well as to manage their pain.

Ultimately, over time, the combination of the factors mentioned above began and facilitated the spread of the opioid crisis in America. From the early nineties when pharmaceutical companies realized that opioids drugs could result in massive profits, which facilitated their misleading marketing campaigns on the safety and efficiency of their opioid drugs, to the willingness of doctors all over the country to excessively prescribing opioid painkillers, have led to the spread of opioids in the country. Subsequent actions to prevent such proliferation have only worsened the situation as previous opioids users having already been addicted to opioids seek alternative avenues where more potent opioids are easily accessible.

Works cited

Lopez, German. "The opioid epidemic, explained." 26 October 2017. Vox. Web. 17 December 2017.

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. "Opioid Prescribing." 26 September 2017. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Web. 17 December 2017.

Simon, Lee S. "Relieving pain in America: A blueprint for transforming prevention, care, education, and research." Journal of pain & palliative care pharmacotherapy (2012): 197-198.