Essay on Opioids Epidemic

In most cases, people who seek help for someone who has overdosed on opioids should now start getting NO as an answer. It is about time that people should know and fully understand that naloxone can save lives but it is no cure (Kerensky & Walley 2017). Constant administering of Narcan to addicts, only encourage them to risk more by heroin overdose while seeking higher highs. Evidently, most of the drug addicts have overdosed several times, and each time Narcan brings them back. Therefore, constant administering of Narcan has set up a trend among drug users. Additionally, administering Narcan has proven to be a huge budget incurred in the health sector.

People should be incarcerated for possessing an opioid for their use. However, someone who is under drug-related overdose in progress could be prevented from prosecution. Additionally, to avoid prosecution the person needs to report to medical personnel to be cleared to use. More so, people must identify themselves as having an overdose and must always be cooperative with investigations that regards to the results of the overdose.

Solutions to the opioid crisis are critical. Similarly, it is crucial to address addiction as a chronic illness and not as a moral failure to develop an appropriate solution. With that in mind, people should be made scared of overdoses and mixing of drugs and educate them on the consequences of addiction (Gentry 2017). Currently, people consume drugs excessively without fear of death since they know opioids will restore them to normal.

However, the proposed solutions have their pros. First of all, educating people on the consequences of using drugs would significantly help in reduction of the number of drug addicts. More so, informing them of the risks involved in the continuous use. Hence, a proper understanding of the risks involved and educating people would significantly reduce the number of people using drugs and chances of overdose (Hardill 2016).

Secondly, informing people on the dangers involved in mixing drugs would greatly instill fear among the drug users. Informing people about the dangers involved in the mixing of medicines whether under prescription or not, would significantly discourage people from taking drugs. Therefore, creating awareness among the drug users would substantially provide a solution to the opioid crisis.

Implementation of the solution towards the opioid crisis is bound to be faced with a lot of challenges. Mostly in making the drugs unavailable is a good concept in the fight against drugs but unachievable practically.

References

Gentry, D. C. (2017). Should Opioid Use and Possession be Shifted From the Criminal Justice System to the Public Health Sector? (Doctoral dissertation, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs).Hardill, K. A. (2016). That Look That Makes You Not Really Want to Be There": Health Care Experiences of People Who Use Illicit Opioids in Small Urban and Rural Communities-A Critical Social Theory Analysis.

Kerensky, T., & Walley, A. Y. (2017). Opioid overdose prevention and naloxone rescue kits: what we know and what we dont know. Addiction science & clinical practice, 12(1), 4.