Beware of making knee-jerk drug policy

America is in the grips of an opioid epidemic that has left tens of thousands of people dead and destroyed countless families and individual lives.

The truly sad part of this epidemic of destruction is that the explosion in overdoses in recent years was, in large part, the result of knee-jerk, feel-good public policy decisions aimed at curbing prescription opioid use.

In the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies developed and marketed new opioids assuring doctors and patients that they were less addictive than their predecessors. This proved to be a load of bunk.

At the height of the prescription opioid boom, it became common to see healthcare facilities promoting pain management centers and doctors prescribing drugs like oxycontin as part of routine pain management regimes.

The problem is that the pharmaceutical companies were raking in profits and the drugs they were pushing proved to be highly addictive. In a politically-motivated knee-jerk reaction to prescription drug abuse, in 2016 the federal government tightened regulations to prevent the over prescription, limited the dosage that could be described and the number of days they could be prescribed.

For the millions of people who relied on the drugs for pain management in order to function, the new regulations were especially hard. Others, who had become dependent on opioids and who could no longer access them through prescription mills or other sources, quickly turned to street drugs such as heroin and the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl.

Fatal overdoses rose from 63,000 in 2016 to more than 100,000 in 2021. Fentanyl deaths have doubled in the past two years.

Meanwhile, those who have been living with acute and chronic pain have been treated as pariahs as state laws and insurance companies codified federal policies in limiting access to the prescription painkillers when all they want to do is be able to live their lives.

Fortunately some common sense and science is coming back to the drug policy discussion with federal officials easing up on some limitations to allow more flexibility in what drugs can be prescribed and for how long.

Opioids are to healthcare what dynamite is to civil engineering. They are both powerful and wonderful tools if used judiciously. However, if mishandled or intentionally abused can lead to unintended destruction.

Public policy regarding opioids and other drugs must be implemented with a steady hand and after careful deliberation, taking into account the unintentional consequences of any action.

Forcing those in chronic pain to quit cold turkey forced thousands of people into the arms of street drugs and left untold misery in its wake. Leaders must learn from the mistakes of the past in setting state and national public policy regarding drug management. This must not only be a political decision, but must take into account up-to-date science on addiction and treatment rather than knee-jerk decisions.