We’ve all heard that the opioid crisis is one of the biggest issues in our region, but not everyone agrees on how to solve or fight it. Some have the conception that the issue is merely a criminal justice problem, but as a public health major, I believe that it behooves the campus community to understand that the problem is more complex than that.
Although it is not wrong to see opioid abuse as a criminal act, what also needs to be understood is that another component of the opioid problem is substance addiction – a health issue that merits a medical response.
When individuals make the decision to abuse opiates such as heroin, we need to acknowledge that the problem is not only with their choice to do so but also with their addicted medical condition that functions as an enabling factor for this behavior. When we respond to cases of abuse as if the medical factor is entirely absent, we react wrongly and ultimately do these people a disservice by neglecting treatment of an integral part of the problem. That solution does little to address the component of the problem that might be the most important.
A more beneficial response should include treating these people for their medical addictions. Since we want to see a long-term change away from drug abuse for the benefit of these people and their communities, drug rehab therapy – rather than mere time in prison – may well be what they need.
ETSU’s College of Public Health hosts guest lectures every semester in their “Leading Voices” series, one of which was Beth Macy’s presentation on the opioid crisis in 2018. The reporter for The New York Times spoke about her new book, “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America,” and what she discovered while researching the issue.
Toward the beginning of the presentation, Macy said that opioid overdose in America has killed 300,000 people in the last 15 years. Macy made it clear opioid addiction is not only a health issue, but a massive one at that. She added that that addiction “takes four to five treatment episodes over an average of eight years for a person with opioid use disorder just to get one year of sobriety.”
Although Macy intended to show the severity of addiction with that statement, I want to highlight both that it’s treatable and that a purely carceral approach undermines this entire treatment process for people addicted to these substances.
Opioid addiction may be a criminal issue in part, but we can’t deny that it is a public health issue as well. We need to respond to both components of the problem instead of just one. We need to avoid a mindset that keeps people with addictions in a cycle of abuse and incarceration.
Good news: We are working toward progress. We already have recovery centers such as ETSU’s Overmountain Recovery Clinic in Gray treat for addiction to opioids as well as court-ordered drug rehabs for people with substance addiction.
When everyone finally sees the war against the opioid epidemic as one we fight with medical care more than with lock and key, we have already won the first battle.
