Lessons We Can Learn From the Opioid Crisis | In Focus

America has a long history of opioid use.

Rich Elfers, “In Focus”

How many of you readers know someone who is addicted to opioids? How many of you know people who have died from opioid overdoses? Do you know how the epidemic started? Do you know the waves that have hit the United States? Knowledge brings power, but it also brings anger.

Opioids were widely used in America beginning in the 1800s. They were used for pain relief, especially during the Civil War. They were called the “wonder drug” used to relieve coughs. The German pharmaceutical company Bayer began marketing them in the United States in 1898. But by the 1920s, doctors were beginning to understand the addictive properties of opioids and were reluctant to prescribe them. In 1924, Congress passed the Heroin Act, which banned the manufacture, importation, and sale of heroin. By the 1950s, heroin addiction was rare.

Older baby boomers will remember rock star Janis Joplin who died of a drug overdose in the 70s. Many Vietnam veterans remember how cheap and easy it was to get opioids in Vietnam. It is thought that 10-15% of American soldiers became addicted during their service in Vietnam. President Nixon called drug abuse “public enemy number one.” In 1982, Vice President H.W. Bush used the CIA and the military to block their entry into the United States.

In 1979, there were 3,000 drug overdose deaths in this country. By 1988, the number had risen to 5,000. In 2016, the number of drug overdose deaths rose to 64,000, according to the CDC. As of January 2023, there were 109,600 drug overdose deaths in the previous 12 months.

What caused the change in attitudes toward opioids from the 1950s to the 1980s? The change occurred because of an article in the New England Journal of Medicine in January 1980 entitled: “Addiction rare in patients treated with narcotics”.

The first wave of the opioid crisis began around 1990. Perdue Pharma held more than 40 promotional conferences to promote opioids in the Southwest and Southeast, claiming that the risk of addiction was “less than one percent” (Wikipedia). Attitudes toward opioids changed. The number of opioid prescriptions increased from 76 million to 116 million between 1990 and 1999. The increased number of prescriptions led to increased substance abuse and related deaths. Addictions led to an illicit market. Meanwhile, the potency of opioids increased.

The second wave brought about the change in opioid laws. Politicians decided that reducing the supply of opioids would solve the problem. “Since 2011, opioid prescribing has declined by more than 60 percent.” Unfortunately, the total number of overdose deaths more than doubled between 2011 and 2020, while medical use declined…” (scientificamerican.com).

The third wave began in 2013 and ended in 2016. Synthetic illegally made opioids, fentanyl, arrived. Fentanyl is 50-100 times more potent than morphine. Opioid demographics changed to younger, less male, white, and rural populations compared to previous waves. Black and Hispanic overdoses also increased during this time.

A fourth wave emerged after 2016. Opioids were mixed with meth and/or cocaine, either taken sequentially or simultaneously. So instead of drug deaths dropping after the CDC recommended reducing opioid prescriptions, deaths actually rose. Between 2012 and 2020, cocaine deaths tripled, while meth deaths increased fivefold.

Our culture loves to blame disasters like the opioid crisis. The list is long. It started with the New England Journal of Medicine lying to doctors by telling them that opioids were not addictive. Big Pharma promoted opioids as a solution to pain, which boosted their profits. The US government’s policy of reducing prescriptions for opioids led addicts to take to the streets to buy increasingly potent synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

Fentanyl makes Chinese pharmaceutical companies money. Mexican drug cartels get big shipments from the Chinese. The cartels repackage it and smuggle it into the US. Xi Jin Ping could shut down fentanyl production in a day if he wanted to, but the Chinese economy needs money.

Weakening America through drug addiction also serves Chinese political goals.

The last to be blamed in this tangled web of addiction are Americans who seek to solve their problems by escaping pain and/or loneliness through drugs.

Drug use is a choice the first time. Then addiction becomes the tyrant, and the addict becomes the slave and often the victim. Family and friends suffer as a result of human weakness and capitalist greed. Society is damaged by addiction through increased crime to feed the habit.

There are solutions and treatments such as Naloxone and Buprenorphine that can help reduce drug addiction. Watch the YouTube video: “The Opioid Crisis and the Way Forward” if you are addicted or have loved ones who are, there is hope.