On Monday, people around the world mourned, remembered and honored those they lost to drug overdose on International Overdose Awareness Day. We are reminded daily, louder and clearer, that the problems of drug abuse, whether prescription or illegal, are issues more closely related to health than crime.
In 2016, Alachua County heroin overdoses and arrests spiked. That same year, more than 40,000 people in the U.S. died from opioid overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The situation appears more dire the closer one looks.
One-third of U.S. adults use prescription painkillers, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Each one of them stands in the crosshairs of potential addiction.
In 2015, more than 1.4 percent of patients with a prescription for painkillers misused their medication to “get high” or “feel good.” All it takes is one misuse to become addicted. Opioids are particularly addictive because they create a powerful sense of well-being that can lead to compulsive and out-of-control use. Although patients might think taking a few extra pills will get them through the pain or give them a moment of bliss, they unknowingly expose themselves to drug abuse each time they exceed their prescribed dose. Additionally, friends or family members who might have access to the medication are vulnerable, too. The fact is, simply having opioids in a pill bottle in your cupboard increases your risk of addiction. Although there is a broad range of circumstances that factor into drug addiction of any kind, having easy access to addictive substances is one of the major contributors.
At the center of the crisis is the popular idea that prescription medication use is somehow safer or less addictive than illegal drug use. Years later, many find they have formed a habit they can’t get rid of. Then, that habit can grow so expensive that some turn to heroin for relief.
Yet, we think differently about those who abuse prescriptions and those who use heroin.
When we think of opiate addiction in the U.S., too often we conjure the mental image of syringes and back-alleys. When we think addiction, we think crime — a problem which can be solved with punishment. But what has become increasingly obvious to health professionals is that we cannot continue to battle addiction with handcuffs; the best way to help those suffering from opiate addiction is to provide medical solutions, not legal ones.
Most of the drug-related arrests in the U.S. continue to be based on possession of the drug, not its sale or manufacture, meaning those who are addicted could end up in jail rather than in a hospital. This goes to show that laws and policies that criminalize addiction (by criminalizing possession) are of no help to public health and do little to solve the crisis.
Instead, we should be making investments into drug abuse treatment and prevention programs and fixing the problem where it starts: with prescriptions. Florida has moved in this direction with the establishment of alcohol and drug abuse trust funds — Alachua County has one as well. Florida’s legislature has enacted a new law that makes it harder to get a temporary prescription for opioids and even harder to get a long-term prescription.
But we must go further. We have to start thinking about how we have criminalized heroin but allowed a loophole for opium by allowing it to be prescribed by a doctor. The truth is that the addiction is the same, and we must offer the same sympathy to everyone, no matter what type of opiate they are addicted to. To those addicted to drugs illegal and prescription alike, we must offer a helping hand, and we must do it soon.
