In recent discussions of opioid addiction, a controversial issue has been whether authorities should focus on widely distributing Naloxone or focus on committing an effort toward more accessible treatment centers. On one hand, some authorities advocate that making Naloxone widely available is crucial because Naloxone significantly lowers deaths by overdose. On the other hand, however, others, such as Geoff Mulvihill and Michael Sisak argue in their article “Recovery After Overdoses: Stopping Heroin’s Revolving Door” that Naloxone hasn’t lowered addiction rates. They suggest that addiction treatment gets at the root of the problem by helping addicts overcome addiction, whereas Naloxone leaves people suffering from withdrawals and a desire to
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Some have this harsh idea that addiction is a choice and that fighting for the lives of addicts is useless. Others may think that it’s redundant because the dependence rates will never reach “zero.” I, however, will argue that addiction is a disease, and addicts are still human, and therefore it is important to fight for freedom from addiction. The fact that addiction is a disease is exactly why opioid addiction will never completely go away. However, if a proper system is intact to immediately help anyone who may become addicted, the illegal market for opioid pain relievers and heroin will diminish, and opioids will be back into the hands of pharmacies instead of on the streets targeting innocent …show more content…
The solution to this epidemic isn’t as simple as lowering overdose rates with an antidote. The community needs to see some real results, statistics that show opioid dependence lowering rather than doubling. If Naloxone is going to be used to reverse an overdose, then some regulations should be set to guide these people toward treatment. While authorities work on getting treatment more readily available, a separate hospital staff should be provided with the resources to speed up the process of getting patients into the correct treatment centers. As Kathleen mentioned, writing down a list of phone numbers on a piece of paper is not enough. If there was a trained staff in hospitals to talk to these patients and call the treatment facilities and provide a date of admission to the patient, there would be more beneficial results. A patient may decline treatment for reasons other than lack of motivation. Child care and expenses may prevent an addict from seeking treatment. It would be beneficial for the staff to establish solutions to these issues for the patient as well. Patients would no longer use all their motivation toward calling these treatment centers, and instead would utilize that motivation towards actually getting themselves through the
Some have this harsh idea that addiction is a choice and that fighting for the lives of addicts is useless. Others may think that it’s redundant because the dependence rates will never reach “zero.” I, however, will argue that addiction is a disease, and addicts are still human, and therefore it is important to fight for freedom from addiction. The fact that addiction is a disease is exactly why opioid addiction will never completely go away. However, if a proper system is intact to immediately help anyone who may become addicted, the illegal market for opioid pain relievers and heroin will diminish, and opioids will be back into the hands of pharmacies instead of on the streets targeting innocent …show more content…
The solution to this epidemic isn’t as simple as lowering overdose rates with an antidote. The community needs to see some real results, statistics that show opioid dependence lowering rather than doubling. If Naloxone is going to be used to reverse an overdose, then some regulations should be set to guide these people toward treatment. While authorities work on getting treatment more readily available, a separate hospital staff should be provided with the resources to speed up the process of getting patients into the correct treatment centers. As Kathleen mentioned, writing down a list of phone numbers on a piece of paper is not enough. If there was a trained staff in hospitals to talk to these patients and call the treatment facilities and provide a date of admission to the patient, there would be more beneficial results. A patient may decline treatment for reasons other than lack of motivation. Child care and expenses may prevent an addict from seeking treatment. It would be beneficial for the staff to establish solutions to these issues for the patient as well. Patients would no longer use all their motivation toward calling these treatment centers, and instead would utilize that motivation towards actually getting themselves through the