23 Oct What’s with all the opioid talk?

Solving the opioid crisis should be a non-partisan issue. We’ve heard a lot of chatter lately, from elected officials and the media, about the growing opioid epidemic. Recently, Mr. Trump pledged to help Americans struggling with opioid addiction – though no real money was pledged to this cause.

So – what’s that mean and why all of a sudden does it seem to matter?

• Opioids: The Prescription Drug & Heroin Overdose Epidemic
• Opioids are most often used medically to relieve pain, and by people addicted to opioids
• Opioid Addiction FAQ: Experts’ Guide to the hard facts

Opioids were synthetically created by the pharmaceutical industry to help with pain management and weaning people off of illegal opiates such as Heroin.

Let’s take a high-level view of this crisis.

• The pharmaceutical industry created these drugs and provided them to the healthcare industry.
• The healthcare industry then prescribes them to people.
• People “feel” better so they want more.
• The healthcare industry provides more.
• People become addicted.
• The healthcare industry cuts them off.
• People find other illegal ways to obtain the opioids.
• The addiction continues.
• People end up impaired and break the law or commit crimes to continue to feed their addiction.
• People require detox treatments, to which they often can’t afford, to break the addiction or they end up in prison for illegal possession or other crimes committed to feed their addiction.

The pharmaceutical industry created this problem. The healthcare industry exacerbated this problem. Both continue to make money off this crisis. Now neither one wants to take real accountability or have anything to do with solving the problem.

Many of those who are impacted the worst by this epidemic live in low-income parts of the country. If they opt for treatment they rely on Medicaid to pay for it. Medicaid is the largest national payer for addiction and mental health treatment.

The prior partisan proposed healthcare bill reduced funding to Medicaid. No current bipartisan legislation is pending a vote which helps.

Who else sees the flawed logic?

Comment and share your thoughts.