Federal and local governments should assist in diminishing the drug abuse problem by funding public assistance and self-help programs, along with treatment programs to help assist with educating communities on addiction and how it affects their families. Addiction is a multifaceted disease that requires treatment of patients and their loved ones alike. Some communities may not know the benefits of addiction education and self-help programs and this is why they need to be more publicly available for utilization: “Prevention activities that are fully funded reduce access to alcohol, tobacco and drugs; change social attitudes; raise awareness about the consequences of substance use disorders; and build communities’” (Knopf 4). Prevention and awareness
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For a community to have optimum social and economic interests, education and treatment options are necessary to address rapid drug overdose rates: “Last month’s congressional testimony confirming that illegally produced fentanyl, not prescription opioids, is now driving the steep increase in drug overdose deaths nationally is generating call from everything to more rapid monitoring of trends to aggressive public health and harm reduction strategies.” (Enos 1) Public assistance funding provides means for patients and their families to access more educations and integrate back into their communities. Self-help programs have the potential to take addicts of the hopeless variety and teach them life skills that allow them to contribute to society: “It has an employment center for connecting newly drug-free people to sympathetic hirers, and banks of computers for those who lack …show more content…
America’s drug abuse crisis is due in part to doctors over prescribing of narcotic medication with little regard to the long-term effect on patients: “For the most part, those drugs were not smuggled into the country; they were prescribed by physicians and purchased legally from pharmacies.” (Kleiman 5). Knowledge of painkillers and opiates is essential for primary care providers, but awareness of proper drug regulations by local and federal level government has not been required until negative side effects of narcotics have been brought to light. According to addiction advocate Sally Satel, the problem began with the simplicity of prescribing narcotics and drug manufacturers marketing techniques: “Patient advocates and some clinicians for more-liberal use of narcotic painkillers in treating pain gained ground. This led to doctors’ over-prescribing long-acting, high-dose narcotics in large quantities to treat nasty toothaches and minor injuries that required only a few days of pain relief. Aggressive marketing by narcotic manufacturers abetted this trend.” (Satel 4). These actions demand attention from policy makers, and require primary care providers to utilize funded programs for addiction to work congruently with medical treatment. Patients need properly
For a community to have optimum social and economic interests, education and treatment options are necessary to address rapid drug overdose rates: “Last month’s congressional testimony confirming that illegally produced fentanyl, not prescription opioids, is now driving the steep increase in drug overdose deaths nationally is generating call from everything to more rapid monitoring of trends to aggressive public health and harm reduction strategies.” (Enos 1) Public assistance funding provides means for patients and their families to access more educations and integrate back into their communities. Self-help programs have the potential to take addicts of the hopeless variety and teach them life skills that allow them to contribute to society: “It has an employment center for connecting newly drug-free people to sympathetic hirers, and banks of computers for those who lack …show more content…
America’s drug abuse crisis is due in part to doctors over prescribing of narcotic medication with little regard to the long-term effect on patients: “For the most part, those drugs were not smuggled into the country; they were prescribed by physicians and purchased legally from pharmacies.” (Kleiman 5). Knowledge of painkillers and opiates is essential for primary care providers, but awareness of proper drug regulations by local and federal level government has not been required until negative side effects of narcotics have been brought to light. According to addiction advocate Sally Satel, the problem began with the simplicity of prescribing narcotics and drug manufacturers marketing techniques: “Patient advocates and some clinicians for more-liberal use of narcotic painkillers in treating pain gained ground. This led to doctors’ over-prescribing long-acting, high-dose narcotics in large quantities to treat nasty toothaches and minor injuries that required only a few days of pain relief. Aggressive marketing by narcotic manufacturers abetted this trend.” (Satel 4). These actions demand attention from policy makers, and require primary care providers to utilize funded programs for addiction to work congruently with medical treatment. Patients need properly