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CHEP 1: Opioid Usage

Citlaly Gonzalez

Santa Fe College

HSA3111: US Health Care

Dr. Nazar Kazemi

Chapter 4 & Chapter 13

10/26/2023
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CHEP 1: Opioid Usage

Starting in the 80’s, opioids were advertised heavily as safe painkillers. Since these

drugs were newly formed, at first doctors did not know how addictive these drugs could be.

Eventually, this led to it easily being prescribed to people and increasing its usage. This

unexpectedly created The Opioid Epidemic. Furthermore, this powerful drug can be useful as

well as disastrous to its users. One of these disastrous issues is people misusing opioids when

prescribed because of not knowing its consequences. Another is people using illicit synthetic

forms of opioids on the street and there not being places to help them. Lastly, opioid addiction

treatment drugs are hard to obtain and are being sold illicitly on the streets. All these issues can

result in addiction and in due course, death.

Opioid issues & solutions

Prescription Opioid Addiction

Opioids are one of the most prescribed painkillers in the US. It is known to be

questionable and hard to control the usage of. When dealing with chronic pain people have a

harder time doing day-to-day activities. They usually have to live with the pain for the majority of

their life. Because of this, they seek out treatments to manage their pain and most of the time

medication, like opioids, is the solution. The problem with different types of opioids being

prescribed for chronic pain is that they can eventually lead to the user developing a tolerance.

Consequently, if someone develops a tolerance then it is possible to start misusing the opioid by

taking a larger dosage. This can happen because the effects do not last as long since the body

is accustomed to the dosage. Moreover, After some time tolerance can lead to a chronic

medical illness called addiction. There are ways that addiction can be formed and how it can

affect people differently. People with chronic illnesses can get addicted to opioids because they

are dependent on the drug in order to be able to function. Likewise, they are able to keep using

the opioids because they keep getting prescribed to them.

Therefore, in order to reduce the misuse of opioids, steps need to be set in place. This

can start with teaching physicians and pharmacists more about how to talk to patients so they

can prescribe opioids safely. Likewise, medical schools are not providing training in addiction

and pain regulations. In fact, some physicians have stated that they have felt uninformed about

prescribing opioids in a safe way. However, by medical schools including what-if scenarios

about patients abusing prescribed drugs, they can prepare themselves for the future. Also

teaching what to do if they suspect a patient is abusing a drug can be beneficial to a physician.

Having practice on signs of drug abuse can help physicians know to monitor their patients, and

pass out drug tests to determine the opioid usage or other unprescribed drugs in the patient's

system (Volkow & Thomas, 2016). Moreover, pharmacists play a big role in helping to stop drug

misuse. They are in charge of dispensing them to patients who are prescribed. They are in

charge of informing patients about possible misuse of drugs, mainly to people with chronic

conditions. This is why it is important to continue teaching them about updated ways to minimize

drug addiction. There should be seminars and training so that pharmacists can always be

confident about dispensing opioids safely to their users (Shi et al., 2023).

Illicit Synthetic Opioids

Illicit Synthetic opioids that are sold on the streets can contain fentanyl and other mixed

substances. People can unknowingly take these various mixed opioid substances while others

seek them. This is adding to The Opioid Crisis, which has become a public health emergency.

Prescribed opioids and illicit synthetic opioids are similar yet so different. One difference is that

a prescribed opioid is uncontaminated while the ones sold on the streets have substances that

are hard to identify. Most of the time there is no way of knowing what is in the illicit opioid before

consumers take them. For example, consumers could be thinking they are buying an opioid like

oxycodone, but actually what they receive is oxycodone mixed with fentanyl. While fentanyl and

oxycodone can be administered in a safe way by medical professionals, the difference is that

the ones sold on the streets are illegally made. Most of the time it is not coming from a
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pharmaceutical and it's being produced by someone with no right to manufacture drugs.

Therefore, consumers taking these unprescribed opioids are more at risk of death and

addiction. Additionally, having easy access to opioids can result in addiction and uncontrolled

tolerance where one just keeps taking higher doses.

A step to solve this issue is to open more overdose prevention centers where people

who are addicted to opioids can get help. These centers help users who want to stop depending

on drugs and provide treatments to minimize the withdrawal symptoms. As well as helping users

become clean, they also help to prescribe certain opioids as a treatment. While it could sound

like a bad idea, administering specific opioids can benefit a drug-dependent person by still

feeling a euphoric effect and by not using a contaminated opioid. Likewise, the overdose

prevention center helps people by having them bring their own drugs, where medical

professionals test them to see if they are contaminated. These centers also provide a safe place

for consumers to consume their drug, and have Naloxone, which is a drug that reverses

overdose. However, there are only two overdose prevention centers in the US that have only

been open for two years. This makes it hard for people with addiction to test their drugs and be

monitored before using them. Likewise, it is not advertised enough and people do not even

know they exist. It’s important to increase the number of overdose prevention centers so

overdose rates can decrease. The goal would be for The Opioid Crisis to end by putting an

overdose prevention center in every state (More than 80% of people who inject drugs, 2023).

Opioid Addiction Treatment

While opioids can be a controversial topic, it is important to be informed that not all

opioid usage is harmful. Some opioids like Methadone and buprenorphine are opioids that treat

opioid addiction. People can be addicted to opioids for years and even if they want to get clean,

they go back to using because of the withdrawal symptoms. It is like a cycle that they can not

break. Moreover, with Methadone and Buprenorphine as treatment options, people can manage

their withdrawal symptoms through the process. They differ from other opioids like heroin
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because they do not have an effect on someone’s mental process. They also help to avoid

withdrawal symptoms by delivering a lesser euphoric effect to satisfy people with addiction. By

administering these treatment opioids to addicted patients, it can aid people who are scared to

go through the withdrawal phase. Although it is a treatment option for addiction, it is difficult for

doctors to prescribe them because of policies. On the contrary, it is easier to prescribe opioid

painkillers than the opioid treatment drugs. Furthermore, even if Methadone and Buprenorphine

are more accessible, these drugs can be so scarce that it is causing people to sell them on the

black market. They are not being manufactured enough and it's leading to people buying illicit

ones that are tampered with other illicit opioids (Davis, 2020).

A solution to these problems is to have policies altered so that Methadone and

Buprenorphine are more accessible to people who want treatment. Additionally, having more

policies for opioid painkillers to be harder to administer can also help with opioid usage. If it

becomes easier for treatment opioids to be obtained then, there will be more of a demand for

these drugs which will cause more to be produced. Furthermore, creating more policies to lower

the prices of these drugs can also make them more available to people since their drug of

choice probably could cost less, discouraging them from buying the treatment opioids. Likewise,

having insurance and Medicaid cover costs for behavioral health is beneficial in ending

addictions and deaths. Lastly, making sure that public policies are being followed through by the

federal government, can help people receive the help they deserve. Ensuring that federal

funding is being applied and distributed to healthcare facilities, can help medical facilities be

equipped with the resources necessary to save lives (Shi et al., 2023).

Conclusion

In conclusion, opioid usage can be beneficial and harmful whether it is prescribed or not.

Prescribed opioids can sound safe but it has the same consequences as illicit ones due to
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misusing them. It is the medical professional’s responsibility to observe signs of drug abuse and

the patient's responsibility to ask for help when they have developed a tolerance. Teaching both

patients and medical professionals about the potential of tolerance and addiction when

prescribed opioids, can help them be aware and confident when using them. Not to mention,

illicit opioids are increasingly being sold on the streets, which makes it easier to get hooked on.

To reduce overdoses and addiction, providing safe places for people with addiction, can help

them safely consume their drugs, also while providing treatment options for them. Similarly,

opioids that are used to treat addiction are becoming difficult to prescribe to people and they are

in short supply. Therefore, public policies dealing with behavioral health need to be advocated

for, so there can be more treatment options for addiction. All of these issues need to be resolved

because overdose and addiction percentages are rising. If they are not addressed then it can

lead to medical professionals not knowing how to spot drug misuse which causes their patients

to suffer. Additionally, if there are no places for people with addiction to test their drugs before

using them, then the likelihood of dying of contaminated opioids rises. Lastly, everyone is

different and if one treatment option will work on one, it is possible to not work on another. So if

there’s no access to other treatment options then they can feel discouraged to quit. Drug usage

can be managed right if there is effort.

References

Communications, N. W. (2023, May 31). More than 80% of people who inject drugs test positive
for fentanyl-but only 18% intend to take it. NYU.
https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2023/may/fentanyl-new-york-city.html

Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2023). Chapter 13 Health Policy. In Essentials of the U.S. health care
system (6th ed., p. 294). essay, Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2023). Chapter 4 Health Policy. In Essentials of the U.S. health care
system (6th ed., p. 85). essay, Jones & Bartlett Learning.

TED-Ed. (2020). What causes opioid addiction, and why is it so tough to combat?-Mike Davis.
YouTube. Retrieved October 14, 2023, from
https://youtu.be/V0CdS128-q4?si=viHiV0TUAI7zSoA2.

Volkow, N. D., & Thomas, M. A. (2016). Opioid Abuse in Chronic Pain — Misconceptions
and Mitigation Strategies. The New England Journal of Medicine, 374(13), 1253-1263.
https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMra1507771