Please know that I do not come into this post with preconceived notions. There is no position to defend or agenda to advance. I'm just a guy with piqued curiosity and access to Google. So here we go.
I've recently heard repeated used of the phrase "opioid crisis". I didn't think much of it at first because, hell, people have been popping pills for as long as I've been aware of the concept of drug abuse. It has always been another behavior in a series of behaviors that Nancy Reagan campaigned against in the 80's. Nothing noteworthy about it. What could possibly have elevated this to the level of 'crisis'?
I have almost no context for it. I once had a prescription for Vicodin following oral surgery. I took it on a schedule recommended by the doctor. To the best of my recollection, the pain didn't actually lessen, so I really didn't see the point in taking it. I was, however, dutiful about it. Every six hours, I downed a pill of such size that my jaws seared in protest. After the sixth dose, I felt queasy and soon vomited. For all the up I've thrown in my life, I've never had to do it through clenched teeth. I felt like a bilious lawn sprinkler.
Opioids (in the form of Vicodin, anyway) did not agree with me. I never saw the appeal, either recreationally, or medically. I never felt better, and I've rarely felt worse. That leaves me hard pressed to understand why their use could even be called a crisis, as my own experience was so unpleasant. Who would want to subject themselves to such a reaction?
While my response was not at all unique, I appear to be in an insignificant minority of people who have not two shits to give about an opium high. Dr. Nora Volkow presented to the US Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control that some 2.1 million Americans, however, had some variety of opioid dependence. Another 467,000 were believed to be addicted to heroin. The link between prescription abuse and heroin addiction is noted to have been increasing.
In 2000, her report states, opioid prescriptions tallied 126 million for the year. By 2010, that number had risen to 210 million. Within the same time frame (2004-2008), emergency room visits from non-prescribed opiate overdoses rose from 144,600 to 305,900. Fatalities from overdoses also tripled.
Stats are a bitch, aren't they?
Let's go beyond stats. What's the science of it? First, let's be clear that even the word "opioid" is not exactly indicative of its origin. Opiates (not to be confused with opioids) are derivative from the opium poppy and include morphine and heroin. Opioids are chemical compounds that react to the opiate receptors in our brains. They are easily synthesized, effective at pain management, and nearly identical with respect to their addictive properties. Even anti-withdrawal compounds like methadone, which is used to help heroin users, are commonly abused.
Addiction is so common because opioids, in the long term, inhibit the body's ability to to produce its own opioid chemicals like endorphins and encephalins. Withdrawal symptoms accompany this absence of opioids and hilarity ensues.
Great... Useful information, right? Actually, it's troubling. Dr. Volkow's report draws an interesting correlation. Doctors are getting wise and becoming reluctant to hand out scrips for opioids. 2013 was the first down-tick in prescription issuance in twenty years, which should ostensibly be a good thing. Arizona even enacted in 2017 limits on prescription of opioid pain-relievers to a five-day supply. However, where pill-poppin' gets more difficult, heroin makes an effective and economical substitute. Heroin dosing is difficult to regulate, as is the quality of the product. But what choice is there? The medical community unwittingly created a generation of junkies and now has to figure out a way to get them clean.
Research is being conducted into technologies that will reduce addictive effects of opioids. One of the more promising is one that would allow opioids to interact with cannabinoid receptors in the brain. These receptors work perfectly well with marijuana, as the name implies. Marijuana, as previously posted, is non-toxic, non-addictive, carries lower risk of tolerance, and concurrently treats a number of other illnesses.
The state of Massachusetts has been treating opioid dependency with medical marijuana, publishing one of the first public reports just in October, 2015. While it is far from being a clinical slam-dunk, it's another bit of information that points to the potential for medical marijuana use.
This is an issue that has taken on personal importance for me and I intend to drill down to the irrefutable facts. The world is not as complicated as bureaucracy makes it. Natural compounds are available for our treatment and improved health. Ignorance is a poor excuse to create crises such as this one. It's an even poorer excuse for resolving it with the traditionally painful and health-negative protocols we use.
Interestingly, the existence of the opioid crisis is not really debated. There are no political divides on the issue. The Left and Right agree that it's an issue, which is exceedingly rare. It may be because of the equality with which it strikes at Americans. Every racial group, income level, geographic region, and background are affected by it.
In researching this topic, I really didn't find any source of information that refuted the existence of this crisis. One downplayed it as minor percentages, but seems to be ignorant of how many people may be dependent by focusing on how many die from use. That seems somehow insufficient to me.
I will continue to make this a topic of interest. It does, after all, have my curiosity. There can be no greater impetus for knowledge than wonder.
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