Opioid Crisis

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Prioritizing Demand-Oriented Solutions to Address the Opioid Crisis.

Opioid addiction has become a significant threat to public health, the economy, and national security, as it continues to take more and more lives every day. In fact, since 1999, about two hundred thousand Americans have passed away due to overdoses associated with OxyContin and other prescription opioids (Keefe, 2). This does not even include overdoses from illicit substances such as heroin. Not only is the death toll rising, but there has been a significant surge in drug-related arrests, adding to the problem of mass incarceration. Heather Thompson’s research on why mass incarceration matters reveals that drug-related arrests increased dramatically in the United States, …show more content…
To ensure that the education is effective in preventing individuals from trying addictive drugs and having a higher potential of getting themselves involved in more consequential situations, there needs to be a complete reconstruction of the current teaching methods. DARE has been the basis of drug education since the early 1980s, despite its failure to prevent drug use. Scare tactics have proven repeatedly to not be effective, yet DARE “operated within a punitive framework that stressed zero tolerance of drug use and threatened consequences for it” (Felker-Kantor, 1120). Scare tactics rely on fear to deter behavior, without addressing underlying motivation or providing practical solutions. Also, the use of police officers as teachers because of their supposed “firsthand knowledge of the consequences of drug use” (Felker-Kantor, 1113) proved ineffective, given their key role in enforcing punitive tactics against drug users. The failures of DARE can be used as a learning experience in restructuring drug education. Police officers need to be replaced by health professionals who deal with drug addicts daily, so they can properly inform students. On top of that, it would even be beneficial to bring in a recovering drug addict who can provide firsthand experience on the impacts of drug use. Rather than resorting to scare tactics, health professionals should advocate for …show more content…
Decriminalization of drug use is an essential aspect to ensure individuals can feel safe asking for help and to eliminate the negative stigma surrounding the drug use epidemic, while also reducing the War on Drugs effect on mass incarceration. Portugal recently decriminalized the use of drugs and saw “a drastic reduction in addicts, with Portuguese officials and reports highlighting that this number, at 100,000 before the new policy was enacted, has been halved in the following ten years” (Blackstone, 1). In the United States, too many people struggling with drug addiction either lack access to adequate rehabilitation or are being incarcerated instead of receiving help, emphasizing the inefficiency of current rehabilitation services and the urgent need for restructuring. For example, research was conducted on the effectiveness of required treatment and found that “Of the nine studies included, five found no significant reductions in drug use or crime among people who underwent required treatment, and two studies found that mandated therapy made those measures worse” (Szalavitz, 2). It is difficult to help someone get better if they do not want the help in the first place. With that in mind, rehabilitation centers should be restructured to create
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