Tag Archives: painkillers

Heroin Use Linked to Prescription Painkiller Policies

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It has long been suspected, but now a new study has confirmed that changes to prescription painkiller prescribing practices inadvertently increased heroin use. In 2010 policy makers began to adjust how much OxyContin could be prescribed to patients and changed the form in which OxyContin was made, making it more difficult to crush or snort. These changes were in response to a 2007 guilty plea made by Purdue Pharma (the maker of OxyContin) that they purposely mislead consumers about how addictive the pills actually were.

And while these changes did help to reduce the amount of OxyContin being abused by patients and addicts, there has been some unintended consequences. Because so many were already addicted to the powerful opiate, they turned to another, similar drug to take the place of the OxyContin they could no longer crush and snort. Heroin became the obvious choice to these people, especially since this drug was cheaper and usually easier to obtain.

Since the policy changes in 2010, the amount of people that are currently abusing heroin has risen dramatically. In fact, according to researchers, the change in OxyContin led to an almost 80% increase in the amount of heroin-related deaths in this country. A closer examination of these statistics shows that states throughout the nation are seeing an almost identical correlation between current heroin use and former OxyContin use.

“States with the highest initial rates of OxyContin misuse experienced the largest increases in heroin deaths. Results show that this differential increase in heroin deaths began precisely in the year following reformulation,” explained the researchers.

So, while changing accessibility to OxyContin was of course necessary, now policy makers have to grapple with the increased heroin epidemic. In the past, the correlation between increased OxyContin laws and increased heroin use was suspected, but not verified. This study has proven that there is a direct correlation between the two issues. Of course, heroin is more difficult to control, lawmakers cannot monitor the manufacturing or dispersal of the drug, two of the most effective solutions in the OxyContin shift.

Time to Erase the Racial Lines in Addiction

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There are plenty of instances in our country’s history of discrimination. Our approach to handling illicit drug problems is one of these instances. As the country continues its discussion on racial equality, it is important to include an issue that effects everyone – drug use.

A prime example of the different approaches to handling addiction is how the government reacted to the crack cocaine epidemic and how the government is reacting to the heroin epidemic now. Back in the eighties the crack cocaine epidemic took urban areas over. Law enforcement was overwhelmed with the amount of crime and drug trafficking that surrounded crack cocaine. It quickly became clear that crack cocaine was a problem mostly affecting black people. The federal government responded with the War on Drugs.

The War on Drugs was an initiative meant to scare people into abstaining from crack. Users found in possession of crack or in the process of purchasing crack were arrested and jailed. Sellers were also arrested. Thousands of people were deposited into prisons throughout the country because of crack cocaine. Yet, the cocaine problem persisted.

Fast forward to the current heroin and prescription painkiller problem, a seemingly white issue. The federal government just passed a law to increase treatment options for addicts and minimize punishment. A stark difference from the crack cocaine epidemic of the eighties. So stark in fact, that some people have pointed out the racial issues of such different approaches.

“One thing is sure: the responses are different. We need to acknowledge that and also acknowledge the resentment and the damage that still lingers from the crack wars,” commented David Holthaus.

While it is clear that the War on Drugs was a failure and the government certainly needed a different approach to deal with our current problems, a more important point to make is that addiction does not discriminate. People of all racial backgrounds can fall victim to a substance abuse issue. While heroin was once a problem of the inner city, it has migrated to small neighborhoods throughout the country. Crack had the same potential.

Painkiller Abuse Responsible for Health, Economic Consequences

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opoidoverdosedeathsPrescription pain medications are highly effective when used as directed. However, opioid painkiller abuse by patients and people other than those for whom the drugs were prescribed is a growing problem in many parts of the US. It can lead to a number of problems, including addiction, overdose, depression and lost productivity at work.

Opioid painkillers are used to treat moderate to severe pain, such as that experienced by a patient after surgery or for patients living with chronic pain that cannot be relieved sufficiently with other medications. These medications include drugs such as Percocet, Vicodin and Oxycontin.

• Prescription painkiller abuse is an issue because access to the pain medications is relatively easy. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that sales of prescription opioid drugs “nearly quadrupled” in the years 1999-2014; however, there has not been a major change in the amount of pain that patients reported during the same period. Over half of people who used an opioid for a non-medical purpose were given the drug from a friend or a relative for free.

• Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. In 2014, 47,055 people lost their lives in this manner(CDC). Opioids were responsible for 18,893 of these deaths.

• The results of a study conducted at St. Louis University have found that overusing opioid painkillers for an extended period of time will put users at a risk for depression. Patients who took opioids for 180 days or longer had a 53 percent increased risk of having a new episode of depression, and those who took the medication for 90-180 days were at a 25 percent higher risk compared to patients who took opioids for less than 90 days.

• Most people don’t consider the economic consequences of opioid painkiller abuse on the economy, but it is significant. CNBC reports that as more people become involved in opioid abuse, the annual impact on the US economy is upward of $60 billion, and half of that figure can be attributed to workplace costs like lost productivity. The CDC says that non-medical use of prescription painkillers costs health insurance companies close to $72.5 billion in direct health care costs each year.

If you know someone who is using opioid painkillers for non medical purposes, contact us today to find the right drug treatment center.