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Erik Broos
Mrs. Allison Grace Myers
English 1320
March 7, 2018
Let’s Be Straight
My friend’s wife lay motionless in a hospital bed in the intensive care unit of the local
hospital. She was hooked up to several machines that were keeping her alive. I barely recognized
her, she was very bloated and I think her spirit had already left her body. I said a small prayer
and wished her well, wherever it is that we go next…Another victim of the disease of addiction.
This has not been the first time I’ve had to say goodbye through a friend this way, and I also
know it will not be the last time. So, when I read an article about the opioid crisis due do the
abuse of prescription medication, and the author focuses on honing the skills of the prescriber as
the main solution, I get upset. Pledging to double the number of prescribers of overdose-reversal
medicine may lower the number of overdose fatalities, but it is not going to be of very much use
in the area of battling addiction itself. If one really wants to prevent the rising number of
substance abuse related deaths, it is time to concentrate our energy on abstinence and educating
people about alternative solutions in dealing with pain.
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If you want hungry people to keep from starving, don’t provide them with better quality
meals, show them how to feed themselves. Jack B. Stein reports that “this past year, and
initiative of the secretary of health and human services to address the complex problem of
prescription opioid and heroin abuse began coordinating federal efforts to improve education of
healthcare providers in managing pain and prescribing opioids appropriately; Increasing
availability and adoption of the effective overdose reversing drug naloxone“(Stein 2015). It also
mentions the use of empirical prevention and treatment strategies. I think that it is a great idea to
be able to save someone’s life after he or she has ingested a fatal dose of pain medication. The
medical field has made great strides in developing such a substance, and undoubtedly has given
many people a second chance at life. On the other hand, from my perspective as a recovering
drug addict and personally having survived several overdoses, I cannot help but to feel frustrated
when the health service field proposes a solution for a substance-abuse crisis that smells like a
big plug for pharmaceutical companies. The problem is not that we are dying from an overdose,
but that we are using substances at all. Teach us how to deal with the situations that urged us to
use in the first place. Explore different avenues in which a person can address living with
physical pain. I think our society has created this idea that eliminating the consequences of a
problem somehow equates to solving the problem. Not only is it a mistake, it is also illogical.
Great efforts should go into preventing the problem from happening in the first place.
Treating an opioid addiction with a less powerful opiate, seems to make as much sense as
putting out a fire by adding smaller logs. Stein Proposes the use of methadone or buprenorphine,
which are medications that are supposed to “reduce the negative effects of withdrawal and
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craving but without producing the euphoria that the original drug of abuse caused” (20). In other
words, the author implies that by eliminating the pain and hardship of coming down off of a pain
medication will aid the process of recovering, and by using a medication that is perceived as
non-addictive is going solve the dependency part of the problem. First, I would like to address
the part of the argument where the author claims that methadone and buprenorphine are safe to
use. According to the organization of American Addiction Centers, methadone and
buprenorphine are opiates. They are substances that will produce a sense of euphoria.
Particularly methadone holds a greater potential danger for overdose because it has a half-life
that ”ranges anywhere from 8 to 59 hours”( ), making the chances for an accidental overdose far
scarier. Second, I would like to mention that the philosophy of taking away the pain and
suffering that occurs in the recovery process, is a point worth debating. People that abuse drugs
usually are inclined to seek an “easier, softer way” (Alcoholics, page 58), which has great
potential for the addict to remain in a state of denial about his/her problem of dependency. I just
don’t think that given these dangers, we should go the route of treating a narcotic addiction with
a narcotic.
The partnering of the drug makers of these opioids with health and human services in
creating new drugs designed to battle addiction, combined with pledging to double the number of
prescribers for that drug (Stein 2015), sounds more like a genius market ploy rather than an
intention to reduce the problem of addiction. I must say again that it is a great thing to be able to
save a person from dying from an overdose. However, I have my doubts about arming every
drug attic with a substance that will prevent them from dying if they overdose; by doing so, one
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could almost say that we are making it safer for the drug addict to go ahead and use since the
chances of dying are now less with that overdose-reversal drug. Then when I read an article
about the opioid epidemic that states that pharmaceutical companies are allowed to peddle and
promote their goods prior to FDA approval ( ), my confidence in the integrity of this partnership
drops to an alarming low. It has all the makings of putting financial welfare before human
welfare, and that is not acceptable.
Let’s be straight, even though I am a passionate proponent of abstinence when it comes to
the subject of Substance abuse, I cannot deny the value of a drug that has the capability of
reversing an overdose. I do feel I have a duty to question the efficacy of such a solution and the
motives thereof, because this concerns my fellow addicts, my people. I am convinced that
through greater education about the disease of addiction, not limited only to substance abusers
themselves, but an entire population, we may begin to change the culture of drug abuse. In
addition, the aspect of prevention, intervention, and treatment strategies would make for great
discussion material in social science classes, and from as early on as possible. The problem of
drug addiction is complex in many ways, and there is another side to it that is ugly to look at.
That side is of a financial nature; there is just too much money to be made for all, except the
person suffering from this disabling disease. Together with abstinence and education, and the
willingness to check our every motive for the good, can we start on the road to recovery with
integrity.
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Work Cited
Alcoholics anonymous: the story of how many thousands of men and women have recovered
from alcoholism. General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous, 2015.
“Methadone Addiction: Signs, Withdrawal & Treatment.” American Addiction Centers,
americanaddictioncenters.org/methadone-addiction/.
“The Role of Pharmaceutical Companies in the Opioid Epidemic.” Addictions,
www.addictions.com/opiate/the-role-of-pharmaceutical-companies-in-the-opioidepidemic/.
Stein, Jack B. “Working Together to Tackle the Opioid Epidemic.” Advances in Addiction and
Recovery, 2015, pp. 19–20.