If there is anything which our society could learn from Prince’s death, it is high time that we stop stigmatizing opioid addicts and start using scientific, medicinal efforts to treat them.
Perhaps the worst part of Prince’s death is how preventable it was. On April 15, Prince’s private plane made an emergency landing in Illinois. He had overdosed on opioids and was then rushed to a hospital for treatment. But shortly afterwards, Prince left the hospital without medical advice. The day before he died, Prince was treated by a doctor for opiate withdrawal symptoms, and another doctor rushed to prescribe Prince a dosage of buprenorphine, a drug often prescribed in opiate addiction treatment.
But by the time the second doctor arrived, it was too late.
Now think about this story. Prince was a wealthy, famous individual who should have had no problems getting any drugs he desired. And yet, he had trouble getting his hands on buprenorphine.
So if Prince had trouble getting needed medicinal drugs, what hope do the 2.1 million ordinary Americans suffering from opioid addiction have?
But Americans who want medication to handle the worst effects of heroin or morphine withdrawal find themelves out of luck. And this has resulted because our society is determined to treat drug addicts as criminals and scum, even to the point of denying them medicine which could improve their lives.
According to the National Alliance of Advocates for Buprenorphine Treatment, Congress passed a bill in 2000 allowing physicians to prescribe buprenorphine to patients suffering from opioid addiction. But physicians have to receive a separate certification to prescribe this drug. Then, they are only allowed to help 30 patients in their first year, and only 100 patients every year after that.
Think about how crazy that is. Buprenorphine can help opioid patients wean themselves off of dangerous drugs. And yet Congress decreed that physicians are only allowed to help so many patients a year, and the rest of those patients are out of luck.
It is nonsensical. If buprenorphine is bad, then don’t allow buprenorphine. If it is good, then allow it. Don’t establish some arbitrary limit which serves no purpose whatsoever.
But in the eyes of Congress and those ignorant about opioid rehabilitation, it does serve a purpose. Thanks to many supposed “self-help” groups, many have come to believe that drug addicts should just quit cold turkey. Buprenorphine is another opioid after all. Using it to treat opioid addiction is a crutch or trading one addiction for another, so the logic goes.
But not all addictions are the same. A diabetic is addicted to his insulin, and I am addicted to food and water. But no one suggests that these are crutches.
Fortunately, efforts are being made. President Obama’s latest budget proposes using over $1 billion to fight opioid addiction, and $920 million will be used to “expand access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorders.”
It is a good start for ensuring that opiate addiction is treated as a true disease, with medicine to cure the sick. The only shame is that it came too late for Prince and others who have perished from opioid overdosing and abuse.