As early as 1980, acute pain was so commonly treated with opioids that propoxyphene was the second most widely used drug in the United States. The Carter White House states, “As many as seven in ten reports of drug-related injury or death diverted involved legal drugs, misuse, and abuse of legal drugs.” This brought about a wave of drug related crime from smuggling, dealing, homicide, theft and even intentional drugging of unsuspecting people.
In 2019 opioid overdoses accounted for 50000 deaths in the United States. Its crippling effects can be seen in some of the poorest inner city neighborhoods in the United States
The roots of the opioid epidemic can be traced to doctors overprescribing painkillers to patients to ease pain instead of seeking alternative treatments. These types of pills are often covered by insurance policies rather than alternative treatments and remedies, essentially making these medications an easy replacement. There is also a financial motive behind
prescribing too many opioids. In 2014 and 2015 opioid manufacturers paid hundreds of doctors for consulting and giving speeches, Doctors then in return rewarded them by prescribing their drug to patients. This unethical quid pro quo arrangement is the deadly driving force behind soo many addicts.
There is one sure fire way to stem the flow of new opioid addicts, and that is public awareness. The more people know about the addictive nature of these drugs the less likely they'll be to rely solely on opioids to relieve pain. Doctors who receive money from pharmaceutical companies should be required to disclose this conflict of interest when recommending a drug.