Governments and drugs are interacting in weird ways. How weird? Did you know that a pharmaceutical company lost a $24 million lawsuit to the state of Kentucky in 2015? Do you know why the company lost its lawsuit? It allegedly withheld information about how truly addictive its drug was.
The company manufactures the prescription drug OxyContin, a drug that is indeed highly addictive. As you might know, OxyContin is an opioid, or a drug related to opium. (OxyContin is a brand name for the generic drug oxycodone.) Doctors prescribe legal opioids to relieve pain.
Prescription opioids can relieve pain, but they can also contribute to addictions. As doctors are prescribing more and more opioids, there are more and more people becoming addicted to this class of drugs. Around 2.5 million Americans struggled with opioid addictions in 2012 alone, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
As you probably also know, opioids aren’t just legal medications. Another opioid is heroin, another drug that is highly addictive. Heroin is also illegal, so people addicted to this drug face potential legal problems as well as health issues.
As devastating as addictions to prescription opioids and heroin are, there is help. Some of this help can be seen in other relationships between governments and drugs. For example, in 2016, the U.S. federal government pledged more than $1 billion to help Americans find assistance for opioid addictions and expand treatment options.
On the state level, individual states have pledged more money to prevent and treat substance use disorder. Most states have databases of prescription drugs, which makes it harder for addicts to “doctor shop,” or visit multiple doctors to try to obtain multiple prescriptions. Many states also have laws that give legal immunity to health care providers who administer drugs during opioid overdoses.
It appears that the U.S. federal government and individual state governments are aware that opioids can and have caused widespread devastation in the United States. It looks like these governments are taking positive measures to combat prescription drug addiction.
