Opioid Crisis

How we treat our opioid crisis is highly dependent on how we talk about it. Specifically in understanding that we can not lump all drugs in one category— especially different opiates like fentanyl.

Rarely sold on its own, fentanyl is usually laced in other drugs like heroin. Underground or street sellers are sometimes selling the deadly mixture because it tends to be affordable and is easy to ship. You can, after all, get it delivered to you by the U.S Postal Service.

But there is a legal side of the opioid epidemic that also needs attention. Before fentanyl became widely known in its current state as it is discussed in popular media, it was used for late—stage cancer patients with pain untreatable by other medicines, and for people enduring post surgery.

But then doctors started prescribing fentanyl to patients for far less serious conditions. How? Synthetic fentanyl. Big pharmaceutical companies created everything from patches to lollipops and there is no regulation on who or how it is to be prescribed (due to the fact that the FDA outsourced the regulation guidelines back to the pharmaceutical companies). In other words— the same companies prescribing and profiting off of the synthetic drug have a huge conflict of interest.

How is it that the same industry that was created to protect and ensure the health of people, is doing the complete opposite by knowingly addicting people who would never pick up an addiction habit in the first place?

Check out this video for an inside look (bit I’d encourage you do to your own research):

cover image by image above from: https://unsplash.com/@whoishaleylawrence/portfolio