The Opioid Epidemic

The Opioid Epidemic

Bruce Zhang

What are Opioids?

Opioids are a class of drugs that include illegal drugs such as heroin, prescription pain relievers such as morphine, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. Fentanyl is particularly dangerous due to its potency, as it is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.

In the past few years, overdose deaths caused by opioids have skyrocketed, leading to the current opioid epidemic.

The Opioid Epidemic

In the 1990’s, an increase in the number of opioid prescriptions gave way to an increasing number of opioid overdose deaths. Around 2010, the rising popularity of heroin began to steadily increase the amount of opioid-related deaths.

However, the most recent and disturbing wave of opioid overdoses began around 2013, with the rise of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. In the past few years, synthetic opioid overdose deaths have skyrocketed, overtaking both heroin and prescription drugs as the number one cause of opioid overdose deaths.

In 2017, the number of opioid overdose deaths was six times higher than in 1999, and during the period from 1999-2017, almost 400,000 people died from an overdose involving an opioid.

How Can We Fight the Opioid Epidemic?

The most obvious way to fight the opioid epidemic would be to reduce the prescription of opioids by making sure not to use them when the risks involved outweigh the benefits. This could be done in several ways, including improving state drug prescription laws, improving access to higher quality healthcare services or introducing better guidelines for healthcare providers prescribing opioids. Another way to fight the number of overdose deaths would be to increase the number of states with Good Samaritan laws that protect opioid victims from drug possession charges.

Even though most people are not in a position where they can change laws or install new healthcare guidelines, it is still possible to get more involved. Spreading awareness of the risks of opioids and the possibility of overdose would educate the general populace about the epidemic, which is the first step towards fighting the epidemic. Advocating for changes in laws concerning both prescription drugs and drug possession could reduce the number of people affected by opioid addiction and overdose, as it would increase safe use among prescription opioid users and ease the fear of incarceration that many opioid victims seeking treatment currently have.

The opioid epidemic serves as a reminder that there are still many aspects of healthcare that require reform in order to better serve society. Even if most of us cannot take direct action against the current epidemic, we can learn from the past failures that led to the current crisis and use that knowledge to minimize future victims of opioid/drug use.