The “opioid crisis” in the United States has lasted since the late 1990s and is associated with the emergence of cheap opiate-based painkillers. These are potent compounds found in safe drugs and hard drugs, such as heroin. After all, opioids act on the part of the brain that is responsible for regulating respiration, and in large doses, they may result in depression and death. The opioid crisis that led to addiction and human deaths in the United States was caused by pharmacological, insurance, and advertising social structures.
The main reason for the widespread use of opiates was the criminal actions of pharmacological companies. Pharmaceutical companies legally pay rewards to doctors for promoting their products. Thus, in 2016, 630 thousand doctors received for the issuance of “correct” prescriptions a total of $ 8 billion in direct cash payments, excluding non-monetary forms of remuneration (Dasgupta et al., 2018). A real-life example can be Purdue Pharma, which sold the analgesic oxycontin. Moreover, the United States Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the Walmart retail chain for contributing to the opioid crisis – the company executed invalid prescriptions and did not report suspicious requests (Guardian News and Media, 2020). Another reason for the spread of opioids was the permitted television advertising of prescription drugs. The main negative aspects of the spread of prescription drugs are that advertising causes stereotyping of thinking, and therefore – behavior, imposes ready-made models and standards. Hence, people are not even aware of the harmful effects of opioids.
The investigation revealed significant gaps in medical education in the United States, which led to underestimating the dangers of the widespread use of these drugs. Meanwhile, this dependence, firstly, develops tolerance to the drug, which requires increasing the dose to achieve the effect, and secondly, when one stops taking it causes a withdrawal syndrome. Increasing the dose leads to increased costs (Canning, 2021). At some point, legal drugs become too expensive for the addict, and they slip into street opiates, with all their side effects.
Thus, the opioid crisis is due to the emergence of cheap painkillers on the market. Pharmaceutical companies have promoted opiate-based products, even though such drugs are harmful to health because they are addictive. Insurance companies deliberately created small insurance plans, which led to the purchase of cheaper drugs. Advertising companies have also influenced people’s thinking by spreading advertising of harmful medications. The opioid crisis has killed many Americans through addiction to cheap opiate-based painkillers.
References
Canning, P. (2021). Killing season: A paramedic’s dispatches from the front lines of the opioid epidemic. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Dasgupta, N., Beletsky, L., & Ciccarone, D. (2018). Opioid crisis: No easy fix to its social and economic determinants. American Journal of Public Health, 108(2), 182–186.
Guardian News and Media. (2020). Revealed: how Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel has created a global network to rule the fentanyl trade. The Guardian.