Thursday, April 14, 2016

The fed's latest 'war on drugs': Obama suggests $1.1 billion to extend care for opioid addicts

Amid a proposed prescription opioid abuse and heroin use epidemic highly fueled by over prescribing among the doctors, President Obama has recommended giving $1.1 billion to extend affected people individuals’ approach to care— a suggestion that has garnered bipartisan support. However few professionals question whether throwing money at the problem will be enough, several consider that, if utilized properly, the funding has the possibility to save lives.


In accordance to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), almost half a million Americans lost their lives from drug overdoses between the years of 2000 and 2014. Opioid overdose deaths, involving those from heroin, hit record highs in the year 2014 and observed a 14% increase in only 1 year.


Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, who has served as an emergency room doctor in 1 of the nation’s opioid addiction hotspots, claimed the proposal offers a shift in views about addiction as an individual’s issue best controlled with law imposition, to a chronic medical condition such as diabetes or heart disease that can be stopped and treated.


“That science has been around for many decades, and society’s view point has grabbed up.”




“A pill for every pain”



In the year 2014, 259 million opioids— or sufficient for every American adult— were prescribed, in accordance to the CDC. The most usual prescribed opioid pain relievers were natural or semi-synthetic opioids such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, which are included in the most overdose deadly deaths among opioids. The CDC observed 813 more deaths, a 9% increase, from these kinds of opioids in the year 2014 than 2013.


Over the previous decades, the deaths resulting from the extreme opioid abuse and abuse of illegal narcotics such as heroin have reached on peaks.


A study issued in the month of November 2015 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences recommended overdoses from drugs such as opioids is believed to be one of the primary reasons why deaths of middle-age white Americans are rising while the overall death amount in USA has fallen.


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