Extra Reading
Covid-19 and the Rural Opioid Epidemic, Recommendations to Improve Health in Illinois.
https://www.siumed.edu/sites/default/files/2021-11/COVID_19_and_the_Rural_Opioid_Epidemic.pdf
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Addiction Prevention and Responsible Opioid Practices Act
Understanding the Opioid Overdose Epidemic from the CDC
https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html
Pain is not the fifth vital sign
https://www.medicaleconomics.com/view/pain-not-fifth-vital-sign
The Opioid Epidemic: It’s Time to Place Blame Where It Belongs
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6140023/
The Origin and Causes of the Opioid Epidemic
https://www.georgetownbehavioral.com/blog/origin-and-causes-of-opioid-epidemic
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Federal Controlled Substances Act: Controlled Substances Prescriptions
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Department of Justice. Issuance of multiple prescriptions for schedule II controlled substances.
Final rule. Fed Regist. 2007 Nov 19;72(222):64921-30. PMID: 18038486
The Recovery Research Institute
https://www.recoveryanswers.org/research-post/prescription-opioids-misuse-
source/
Sources of misused prescription opioids and their association with prescription opioid use disorder in the United States: Sex and age differences. Substance Use & Misuse.
Park, J. Y., Wu, L. T. (2020)., 55(6), 928-936.
doi:10.1080/10826084.2020.1713818
How people obtain the prescription pain relievers they misuse. The CBHSQ
Report: January 12, 2017.
Lipari RN, Hughes A Center for Behavioral Health
Statistics and Quality, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, Rockville, MD
https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/report_2686/ShortReport-2686.html
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Summary
•According to combined 2013 and 2014 data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual average of 10.7 million people aged 12 or older misused prescription pain relievers in the past year.
• About one-half of those who misused prescription pain relievers in the past year said that they obtained the prescription pain relievers they had most recently misused from a friend or relative for free (50.5 percent), and 22.1 percent said they obtained the drugs from one doctor.
• Recent initiates, occasional users, and frequent users, when combined,
equal 10.7 million people who misused prescription pain relievers in the past year. An annual average of 1.5 million people were recent initiates, 6.0 million were occasional prescription pain reliever misusers, and 3.2 million were frequent prescription pain reliever misusers in the past year.
• Recent initiates, occasional users, and frequent users were all most likely to get the drugs they misused from a friend or relative for free and from one doctor; however, frequent users were more likely than recent initiates and occasional users to obtain their most recently misused pain relievers by buying them from a friend or relative, by buying them from a drug dealer or other stranger, or by obtaining them from more than one doctor.
Drug Overdose Death Rates
https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates
Drug Related Crime Statistics
https://drugabusestatistics.org/drug-related-crime-statistics
Opioids for chronic pain? Think again, says SIU internist
Published Date:January 26, 2018
https://www.siumed.edu/pr/highlights/opioids-chronic-pain-think-again-says-siu-internist.html
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Drug Use Among Youth: Facts & Statistics
https://drugabusestatistics.org/teen-drug-use/
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JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE
Measuring the Economy's Pulse: Since 1946 (search opioids)
https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/home/
The Economic Toll of the Opioid Crisis Reached Nearly $1.5 Trillion in 2020
As a result of the pandemic, the U.S. health care system was disrupted, reducing access to substance abuse treatment and exacerbating social and economic stress that can worsen addiction. This contributed to a significant increase in the number of Americans diagnosed with opioid use disorder and in the number of fatal opioid overdoses.
In addition to its effects on survivors, families and communities, the spike in opioid use disorder cases and fatal overdoses during the pandemic increased the economic toll of the opioid crisis in 2020. Adapting an approach used by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Joint Economic Committee estimates the opioid epidemic cost the United States nearly $1.5 trillion in 2020 alone—up 37% from 2017, when the CDC last measured the cost.
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The scale of the opioid epidemic demands large and significant action to reduce both the human and economic toll. While recent policy commitments are important steps, the $1.5 trillion annual cost highlighted in this brief suggests the size and scope of the government’s response must be significantly larger. The federal government should address barriers to health care and expand access to evidence-based treatment by continuing a shift towards a “treatment instead of punishment” approach that prioritizes medical treatment and support services over incarceration.
One additional step to support treatment would be for the 12 states that have yet to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act to do so, as Medicaid expansion is associated with reduced fatal opioid overdoses through greater access to treatment. Similarly, the federal government should further fund the Overdose Data to Action program to collect data on overdose deaths from all U.S. jurisdictions. This expanded approach to opioid data collection will help researchers and policymakers estimate the exact cost and impact of the opioid crisis and pave the path to better understand and resolve the epidemic. The federal response should also do its part to lessen the societal stigma around substance use disorder, in large part to encourage those struggling with opioid use to enroll in treatment services.
Although there is a long road ahead to address the opioid epidemic and its impact on communities, allocating funding, expanding treatment access, and improving understanding of the crisis are important next steps to reduce the toll of the epidemic on the United States