Opioid epidemic
[11] Writers have pointed to a widespread desire among the public to find a pill for any problem, even if a better solution might be a lifestyle change, such as exercise, improved diet and stress reduction.
[22] The structure of the US healthcare system, in which people not qualifying for government programs are required to obtain private insurance, favors prescribing drugs over more expensive therapies.
The combination of underdeveloped prefrontal cortex and a rundown reward system can lead to adolescents with addictive seeking behaviors and higher susceptibility to the neurological changes developed in substance use disorder (SUD).
[33] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that In 2018, over 53 million people aged 12 years and older in the United States, reported the misuse of prescription drugs.
If family members are taking opioids for pain or have taken them in the past and did not dispose of them correctly or do not protect them properly, it can make it easy for adolescents to get their hands on them.
A national insurance cohort reviewed almost 90,000 opioid prescribed patients, 13–21 years old, and found that 5% continued to fill their prescription 90 days or more after surgery.
Although the retention time of adolescents is much lower than adults, educating them from a younger age on opioid misuse should help keep children away from these drugs.
[39] Having limited housing makes it easy for recovering substance users to return to the environments and relationships that promoted drug misuse in the first place.
[40] The state of Oklahoma argued that Purdue Pharma helped start the opioid epidemic because of assertive marketing and deceptive claims on the dangers of addiction.
[46] Recently, legislatures have started to advocate for the implementation of supervised injection sites as another way to help the opioid crisis and reduce harm.
[47] However, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that supervised injection sites violate the Federal Crack House Statute.
The primary goal is to prevent overdose deaths through immediate medical intervention and to reduce the transmission of infectious diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis by offering sterile injection equipment.
[50] Over time, numerous studies have documented the benefits of these sites, including reductions in overdose deaths, lower rates of disease transmission, and improvements in public safety.
[50] In the United States, the opioid crisis has reached unprecedented levels, prompting a growing interest in harm reduction strategies such as safe injection sites.
Other cities, including Seattle and Denver, have explored or implemented similar measures, reflecting a growing recognition of the need for innovative approaches to address the opioid crisis.
In 2023 it approved funding for a study with a $5 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to measure the impact of these sites on overdose prevention, health care costs, and community safety.
Researchers enrolled 1,000 adult drug users to assess the sites' effectiveness in reducing overdoses and estimating potential savings for the healthcare and criminal justice systems.
[53] Despite these benefits, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has stopped short of supporting supervised injection sites, and legal challenges have hindered their implementation in many cities .
[54] The approval came more than two years after Rhode Island authorized overdose prevention centers, highlighting the state's commitment to innovative harm reduction strategies.
[54] This initiative reflects a broader trend of states and cities exploring the potential of safe injection sites to address the opioid crisis, despite facing resistance and legal challenges.
Opponents argue that these sites may enable drug use and attract crime, while proponents contend that the evidence from other countries demonstrates significant public health benefits.
[61] Saskatoon, Saskatchewan experienced a record month in opioid overdoses in May 2020 caused, authorities explained, by a combination of ever-amplifying toxic drugs and the COVID-19 pandemic's quarantine keeping individuals from family and needed mental health services.
In Vancouver Jane Buxton of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control joined the Take-home naloxone program in 2012 to provide at risk individuals medication that quickly reverses the effects of an overdose from opioids.
[26] In 2017, 1049 people had a death related to opioids in Spain[70] While strong opiates are heavily regulated within the European Union, there is a "hidden addiction" with codeine.
[75] Public Health England reported in September 2019 that half the patients using strong painkillers, antidepressants and sleeping tablets had been on them for more than a year, which was generally longer than was "clinically" appropriate and where the risks could outweigh the benefits.
They found that problems in the UK were less than in most comparable countries,[76] but there were 4,359 deaths related to drug poisoning, largely opioids, in England and Wales in 2018 – the highest number recorded since 1993.
[88] In 2016, the medical news site STAT reported that while Mexican cartels are the main source of heroin smuggled into the U.S., Chinese suppliers provide both raw fentanyl and the machinery necessary for its production.
Some of the common signs or symptoms of addiction include spending more time alone, losing interest in activities, quickly changing moods, sleeping at odd hours, getting in trouble with the law, and financial hardships.
[101][clarification needed] The makers of these ads feel that since the internet allows teenagers to view gruesome things anyway, it is perfectly acceptable to subject them to images of self-mutilation in order to protect their lives.
[102] It is felt that thirty seconds of gruesomeness is a small price to pay for sparing a lifetime (however short) of opioid abuse and its accompanying poverty and crime.
