The Opioid Crisis.

The coming removal of pain medication containing Opioids from over-the-counter sales and making it a prescription only item is a necessary step if we are to prevent addiction rates rising to the calamitous levels now prevalent in the United States.

One of the earlier hopes to thwart those who crushed the drug for the purpose of either injecting or snorting the resulting powder has made little impression on usage.   The tablets had a polymer added that made them incredibly hard and plastic like.   There was also an additive that made them resist  being dissolved in water, resulting in an unappealing thick gel being the result.

It took a long time to sink in but the main reason we have an opioid problem is because this is a very effective method of pain control and it has been widely advertised by the pharmaceutical companies that compete for its sale.   Because it is addictive, even short time users are quickly in its grip.

From February 1 - when it disappears from chemists shelves - there is the expectation that many users will visit their doctor and ask for a prescription.  It is quite likely that many people are mildly addicted without their knowledge because they have used this form of pain relief intermittently over a long period of time.   Some will be quite surprised when their addiction cravings start to appear.

We are assured that adequate pain relief is available from non opioid drugs and it will be very important that the medical profession stands firm and resists requests for opioids where non addictive alternatives can do an equally effective form of relief.   Some patients can be very demanding and opioid refusal can lead to serious confrontations in some cases.

In the past, the belief that some people hold that antibiotics can cure the common cold resulted in many patients demanding a script for this medication.  Unfortunately, some doctors caved in and simply wrote such a script - with the result that overuse has now degraded the effectiveness of most antibiotics because the bugs they treat have gained immunity.

That same sort of attitude could do irreparable harm to moving opioids from general sale to prescription only if scripts are too freely granted.  Unfortunately, there always seem to be a small number of doctors who readily accede to patients wishes.

It would be a wise move to use the PBS network to keep track of the scripts for opioids handed to chemists and for any imbalance arising from any individual doctor to automatically be investigated.  Without a valid explanation, the right to prescribe opioids by that doctor would be heavily restricted.

Opioids will still be trafficked by the illegal drug traders and they are unlikely to disappear from the black market, but the main aim of this move to prescription only supply is to shield the public from becoming unknowingly hooked on a substance that has hidden addictive properties.

That will only be effective if the medical profession is diligent in steering patients away from opioids and on to safer medication !