Pain-killers may relieve you from the pain but they are harmful, especially when consumed incorrectly. Overdose or addiction can pose a fatal risk to the health of the person. Leo Beletsky, an assistant professor at Northeastern University discusses the type of threat posed by pain-killers.
Opioids are essentially made out of the ancient drug opium and are one of the modern medicines of treating pain. Due to the increased supply of such medicines, the risk behind it is also increased. Pain-killers may cause addiction and sometimes also results in slowing down of breathing rates. Beletsky sees a pattern of abuse which is observed in the increase of medications provided for pain.
President Barack Obama’s 2011 Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Plan brought out a major change in the supply of drugs in the U.S. The plan focused on strategies like education and medication disposal as a part of national drug policy. However, despite such preventives, overdose and inappropriate consumption of pain-killers continue. The new approach that needs to be inculcated should involve the inspection of various areas in education, prevention, and treatment of drugs. Schemes like healthcare and drug treatment services should be provided to communities who have poor access to it.
Apart from advising to increase funding involved to treat victims of substance abuse, Beletsky says, “A longer-term strategy would be to improve access to and quality of drug treatment services”. Also, addressing social issues like mental health and underemployment due to overdose is necessary.
Public awareness about the terrible consequences of substance abuse needs to be done in the communities. Naloxone, an ‘opioid inverse agonist drug’ should be made available in First-Aid kits. These changes should be initiated by drug companies who play an important and responsible role in addressing issues related to drug abuse in the public health sector.
Akshara Palshetkar