“The opioid crisis is not just a statistic; it’s a critical reality that demands our collective compassion, understanding, and action.”
The misuse of opioid drugs, most notably, is one of the most crucial public health concerns in our country. Opioids are specifically used in severe conditions to get relief from chronic pains. However, long-term and careless use of opioids makes an individual dependent, ultimately leading to opioid abuse. When the body gets addicted to opioids, quitting becomes quite difficult.
Opioid Abuse in India
In early times, opioids were used for their medical and healing uses. They were used for the treatment of chronic pain. Opioids can either be derived from poppy plants or produced in labs synthetically. For the past several years, people have started taking opioids for that instant feeling of relief and started misusing them to get high and achieve euphoria.
Opioid abuse is a problem that the whole world is dealing with. In India, about 2.1% of the population is dependent on heroin, smack, or pop pills. Some people also abuse over-the-counter medications. Herion is the most common abused opiate in India, standing at 1.14%. It is followed by opioid medicine at 0.96% and opium at 0.52%.
The percentage of opioid misuse is different across the states. States that have soaring high unemployment and poverty have high rates of drug misuse. Another factor that impacts this rate is the cultural and social outlook toward drugs. The easy availability of drugs also increases the number of people abusing them. In India, it is estimated that there are around 77 lakh people, or 0.7% of the overall population, who struggle with addiction.
Causes of Opioid Abuse
The are several reasons for people to turn to drug addiction. It can be social and economic instability, lack of education and infrastructure, easy access to drugs, and mental health problems. The following are the significant causes of drug addiction:
Overprescription and Medical Practices
The greatest factor behind the opioid crisis is over-prescription. Healthcare providers sometimes overprescribe pain medications to manage chronic pains. Prolonged intake of opioids is what leads to addiction, which can vary from repeated use to aggressive substance abuse, causing harm to society and individuals.
Accessibility and Availability
Nowadays, opioids are very easy to get as over-the-counter drugs. Therefore, those who are addicted to opioids can abuse them by repeatedly seeking them from different places. To experience euphoria and get high, people increase their opioid dosage.
Lack of Education
Awareness and educational programs emphasizing opioid use risks are still not common. Because of this, people do not have accurate information about the negative impacts of addiction. Even medical professionals overlook the severity of overprescription and rarely pay attention to patients who are struggling with it.
Social and Economic Factors
The same economic factors like poverty, lack of jobs, and inaccessible quality healthcare and infrastructure worsen drug addiction. Struggling with financial troubles, people can rely on opioids as a method to cope with struggling situations in life.
The Dire Consequences of Opioid Abuse
Opioid abuse causes multiple psychological and physical disorders. It not only impacts the physical and mental state of a substance abuser but also impacts the country’s financial sector, as well as the interpersonal relationships between people. This problem is disintegrating in nature as it has destructive effects on society. People’s lives are ravaged by severe drug addiction. The following are ways that opioid addiction harms people and society as a whole:
Health Consequences
The health risks of opioid abuse are numerous, which include the risk of heart and lung diseases, overdosing cases, and the surge of life-threatening diseases like HIV and hepatitis. Consuming opioids in high doses causes addiction and makes people highly dependent.
Social and Economic Impact
The opioid crisis affects both the substance abuser and the society as a whole. Addiction causes an immense financial burden on the healthcare system and makes people less productive. At the ultimate stage of addiction, an addicted individual usually stops bothering about their relationships and isolates themselves, which in turn increases the risk of depression, loneliness, and anxiety, which turns out to be the most destructive factors for a person.
Rise in Overdose Deaths
In cases where opioid dependency increases, the opioid crisis becomes worse. It also increases the death toll caused by overdose. People who use prescription drugs or abuse strong narcotics such as heroin develop dependency and start taking drugs in larger amounts to reach the same feeling of relief. It ultimately leads to overdose and drug-related deaths.
Impact on Mental Health
Opioid addiction affects a person’s mental health. It is seen that people consume drugs as self-therapy to get relief from daily life stress, but this habit even worsens the condition and makes an individual addicted. Long-term drug abuse leads to even serious mental health problems such as stress, depression, and chronic anxiety.
Government Research Initiative to Address the Issue
The Drug Abuse National Institute is the principal organization to investigate the landscape of scientific research directed at drug use. It conducts scientific studies to understand drug use and addiction and uses that information to address opioid addiction problems in individuals.
- Strategic support and carrying out basic, clinical, and epidemiological research on drug use, effects, and underlying behavioral, social, and neurological mechanisms are necessary.
- The successful use of scientific research outcomes to create awareness about drugs and treatment plans and remove the root causes of addiction.
Solutions to Address Opioid Abuse
Whether one chooses a preventative, treatment, harm reduction, or community program approach, reducing the extent of opioid misuse among substance abusers is a complex challenge that requires inter-sectoral approaches. Firstly, anything about opioid misuse is combated by fundamental strategies that target their sources and hence offer help.
Improved Prescription Practices
The battle of solving opioid misuse should start with improving the prescription methods used by healthcare providers. It is the primary responsibility of healthcare providers to carry out the assessment of the necessity of opioid prescriptions, explore alternative pain management techniques, and closely consider the side effects of opioids for each patient on an individual basis.
Enhanced Education and Awareness
A campaign for raising awareness about public health is necessary. It is also essential that people become conscious of the negative aspects of opioid use, visible signs of addiction, and accessible rehabilitation resources to assist a person in making an informed choice.
Access to Treatment and Rehabilitation
It is of utmost interest to guarantee wider access to addiction treatment and rehabilitation systems, which will pave the way to put a stop to opioid addictions. This involves increasing the number of medical-assisted treatment ( MAT) options and counseling services available.
Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs)
The introduction and reinforcement of prescription Drug Monitoring Programs would be useful in preventing prescription misuse and guaranteeing a proper distribution of medicines according to prescription. These programs help healthcare providers identify probable cases of prescription drug misuse and help people who might be in danger of abusing them.
Harm Reduction Strategies
Harm reduction strategies play a key role when dealing with addiction. The main purpose of the deaddiction center is to provide harm reduction strategies like the naloxone (Narcan) distribution. Needle exchange programs and supervised consumption sites, which are designed for opioid use swapping, will guide in reducing the damage that is done by the use of opioids.
Multidisciplinary Approaches
Solving the opioid crisis will also require a global strategy that involves healthcare professionals, law agencies, policymakers, and other authority agents. The collaboration will make it possible for a whole range of interventions to be carried out so that different aspects of this problem are covered from various perspectives.
Opioid Crisis: Navigating Complexities and Solutions
Opioid use is a widespread problem. It requires everyone’s joint efforts and exceptional attention to individuals and communities prone to addiction. To tackle opioid addiction, society and policymakers must understand the root causes, impact, and treatment approaches. By understanding this, we can together tackle addiction and make an addiction-free and stable society.
