Christie’s thoughts on opioids don’t go far enough
When Cindy Brady got her tonsils out (classic “Brady Bunch” episode) she was prescribed all the ice cream she could eat.
When my daughter got her tonsils out she was prescribed oxycodone. I wrote extensively about this before, but the gist is this: She was 4 years old and exhibiting signs of addiction. After a few days, she would ask for the medicine.
Then there’s me. When I was a kid, I had a hernia operation. I was seven. It hurt like a bear for three days. I got all the baseball cards I wanted and some Tylenol.
When my son was six, he had a hernia operation. This was after my daughter’s tonsillectomy. He was prescribed oxycodone. I didn’t give him one dose. No chance.
And so it was decided. My children will never get opioids to treat pain unless it’s in an emergency situation. I mean, my kid breaks an arm playing lacrosse one day? Baseball cards and Tylenol. I will not open my children to the threat of addiction, period, full stop.
And the numbers back me up. Over 75 percent of heroin users in treatment got started on pain medication, according a study in JAMA Psychiatry. On a more anecdotal level, a suburban police officer I know said virtually every heroin user he’s picked up got their start on pain pills.
It’s time to completely redo the way pain pills are given out, and to that end, I applaud Gov. Chris Christie’s first set of recommendations as chairman of the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis.
On Monday, the group presented their early thoughts, and they were all no-brainers, starting with the scourge of prescription pain meds. Christie and Co. believe doctors should be better trained in who needs them and that they should be forced to discuss with their patients the very real risks of addiction.
The report also asks President Donald Trump to declare opioid abuse a national emergency, allow treatment centers with more than 16 beds to be able to use Medicaid funds, and working with the pharmaceutical world to develop non-opiate medications to combat pain.
These are all great ideas, especially the one instructing doctors to basically quit throwing opioids at anyone who walks in with lower back pain. Get less people addicted to pain medication, you’ll end up with less people addicted to heroin.
But, at least so far, there’s one major element missing from the Commission’s plans. It’s an element I don’t expect will come to out of this commission, but if you ask me, it’s our best bet to combat the heroin epidemic that is killing people all over the country: Legalize heroin, make it available by prescription, allow users to come out of the darkness. Give these people safe places to take their drugs under doctor supervision, give these people open invitations to treatment while they are there. This takes out the criminal element, this ends deaths due to heroin laced with even more dangerous drugs, this gives families of heroin addicts real hope.
And most importantly, it stops treating heroin users as criminals. Christie himself has long said addiction is a disease, and by recommending regulating it through prescriptions, this would prove it.
This isn’t some wacked-out idea, either. Other countries are doing this. Canada is doing this. It’s working. And it’s time it’s considered here.
After all, if 75 percent of heroin users got started on medications provided by a doctor, don’t you think it’s reasonable they shouldn’t be treated like criminals? Don’t you think it’s reasonable we should allow them to come into the light and seek help? Don’t you think it’s a better idea than watching person after person, kid after kid, overdose and die?
Your move, Christie. Go big.