Claire Kovchegov, Sierra Kivel, and Makaela Freeman

Advisory

Mrs. Hogue

23 March, 2017

Opioids Bill

A serious problem affecting a lot of people is the opioid epidemic. It is grotesquely huge

and it needs to be addressed. A great way to address it would be through education. Educating

medical students alike would prove to be a wonderful solution to the terrible epidemic.

Many people are already addicted to opioids due to the sheer amount of them being

prescribed, and because of how expensive they can be many people turn to heroin because of

how much less it costs and the greater high. This issue has become more intense in the past 8-10

years. What is at stake is the health of the American people and overall well-being. If people

allow heroin addictions to continue it will continue to take the lives of thousands of Americans

every year.

Possible solutions are broken down into two categories: pre and post-addictions.

Pre-addictions means to work towards a solution before someone gets addicted to a drug. For

example, a possible solution for pre-addictions is to educate high-school students on the possible

threats of drugs such as heroin and opioids. More importantly, to educate medical students on

how and when to prescribe an opioid. According to Peter R. Martin, MD, professor of psychiatry

and pharmacology, "The person had an injury or operation, they got a prescription, and they

basically liked it and kept on doing it. Due to prescription drugs, more and more people are

making the switch from opioids, an expensive drug, to heroin, a cheap and accessible drug to
people. (But, there are solutions for post-addictions such as creating more treatment programs to

help people who are addicted to heroin as another solution separate from this one.)

Many Republicans are going to support this program because it will not cost the

government a lot of money but can still benefit the cause. Democrats are going to be a partially

critical because many Democrats believe that you need to help the people who are already

addicted first. This solution will not cost the government a whole lot of money and can benefit

the current heroin epidemic in America. A disadvantage to this solution is that it would not help

those who are currently addicted to heroine.

The advantages of this policy will be socially, more people will be informed about this

awful epidemic and in turn less chance to fall victim to it. Culturally, more people will be able

to thrive because less people are doing opioids. Economically, more people will be able to give

to the economy because they are not spending their money on opioids and instead using their

money to help the economy. Politically, more people will be voting instead of doing drugs. The

disadvantages would be that it would not directly help those addicted to opioids or heroin, rather

it would be a gradual help instead of an immediate one.

The level of government responsible for carrying out this policy would be the legislative

branch because the legislative branch has to make a bill saying it is required to educate medical

students about opioids. We think this policy is Constitutional because it does not infringe on

anyone's rights and overall it benefits the United States as a whole.

Because the courses will be controlled by separate colleges, the costs would vary.

Depending on the college, it may be more or less expensive. The impact on the economy would

be later down the line it would reduce the amount of people imprisoned, therefore reducing the
cost for the government for jails. Opioids can also be expensive, so the prescribing of less of

them would reduce the cost for the government. Less opioid addicted individuals by reducing

the number of opioids that are prescribed. Because of the less prescribed opioids, the crime rate,

unemployment rate, addiction rate, overdose rate, and the suicide rate would drastically drop. It

would make communities safer and and it would give people a more sense of security. Overall,

life would be safer.

Major political actors would support it and because the media has been focusing on the

opioid epidemic lately, it would probably support our solution as well. Politically, the epidemic

is one of the few issues that both sides can come together on and collaborate on multiple definite

solutions, so both would be in favor of it. Colleges might not approve of the solution, because it

would cost more for them to have the class in the first place, and therefore make college even

more expensive. Governmental Agencies have also been focusing on the opioid epidemic, so it

would support it, however with the raise in cost of college it would probably lose a bit of

support.
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