By Clara Snyder | Staff Writer
The late 1990s marked the birth of the opioid epidemic in the U.S., and prescription rates jumped following promises from pharmaceutical companies that the substance would not become addictive. Since then, opioid-related overdose has claimed the lives of over 500,000 individuals across the nation. Given the lack of progress since 1999 and the antagonistic atmosphere toward addiction, I believe this country is presently unequipped to resolve this issue.
In 2019 alone, the number of casualties opioid overdose accounted for was seven times higher than the number of U.S. military service members killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Beyond the cost of human life, the epidemic accounts for $141.8 billion annually between lost productivity, health care and criminal justice costs.
In the past two decades, there has been a myriad of federal approaches attempting to reduce supply and demand. Although some policy effectiveness can be seen in 2020 when the dispense rate was its lowest in 15 years, the problem was hardly diminished overall.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “While the overall opioid dispensing rate in 2020 was 43.3 prescriptions per 100 people, some counties had rates that were nine times higher than that.”
Federal lawmakers have failed to implement positive change regarding this issue time and time again. Their policies dismiss the complexities of addiction and center around a generalization of the opioid crisis as a whole. These generalizations not only create ineffective policies but also further the issue. According to the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, policymakers’ focus on past patterns and misunderstanding of the epidemic’s nonlinear nature can spur new consequences.
The high density of prescriptions throughout the country over the past two decades is a monument to pharmaceutical companies’ disinterest in the public good, and it has created an unparalleled monopolization of financial power by these companies. According to The Lancet, these manufacturers’ prioritization of corporate interest over public interest persists as a force working against stemming the crisis.
Beyond the policy missteps and moral fallacies at the heart of this issue, the present state of American culture is in many ways incompatible with recovering from opioid addiction. Widespread misinformation and stigmatization act as counteragents to cultivating a national atmosphere with the capacity to deflate the present crisis.
Since the start of the epidemic, substance abuse has been villainized as a social value issue by the criminal justice system. According to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, this villainization spurs conversations of whether addiction is a personal choice.
Addiction is widely misunderstood to be a consequence of poor life choices and irresponsibility. This misconception is immensely harmful to sufferers, as scientists estimate 40% to 60% of a person’s vulnerability to addiction is genetically predetermined.
Further stigmatization is created by the media’s harmful portrayal of addiction. While the media has spurred a general increase in public knowledge of mental illness and substance abuse, its depiction has not decreased stigmatization.
The portrayal of these struggles in the media fosters generalization within the minds of consumers, as it creates the characterization that these individuals are harmful and dangerous to the public. The National Institutes of Health describes the media as playing a role in breeding fear of those in active addiction and intensifying the perceived dangers of their persona.
In order for the U.S. to properly combat the opioid epidemic, there needs to be a prominent shift in how American culture perceives the battle of addiction. Flattening the curve starts with acknowledging addiction as an issue of the human experience that contrasts with federal policies.
Beyond increasing public knowledge, moving toward awareness of stereotypes and misinformation is essential for the future of addiction in our culture. For more information on the opioid crisis and student resources, visit the websites of Baylor’s Beauchamp Addiction Recovery Center and the CDC.
