It was with great sadness that I read the March 15 guest column by Henry Brown regarding his son’s untimely death from an overdose. Henry and his wife Debbie were professional education colleagues of mine and thoughtful and intelligent parents. I grieve with them and for their loss.
One thing that I think needs more emphasis in the continuing response to the opiate crisis in Massachusetts and beyond is the role of insurance companies that in conjunction with pharmaceutical companies dictate how pain management is handled.
Opioids, as costly as they may be, are far less expensive than other pain medicines, pain monitoring procedures and psychoactive drug protocols which are routinely denied to covered individuals by health insurance companies.
Opiate medication is most likely going to be prescribed and approved because it is comparatively cheap rather than because it is the best therapeutic choice.
And yes, street heroin is cheaper still and generates its own subculture of “drug solutions,” as Brown correctly points out.
A recent ABC News report, for example, made a point of showing a classroom of 8-year-olds being taught how to administer Narcan (naloxone) to a potential overdose victim.
This may be a good emergency tactic for a child to save a life, much as learning to dial 911 is a good safety tactic. However, the clip ends with a melodramatic video of a child practicing administration by injecting a teddy bear an “overdose preventive.”
One could certainly question the appropriateness of having young children become “competent” with hypodermic needles given their only emerging judgment developmentally and the potential for experimentation.
Is this really the best we can do in response to the opioid crisis? It’s time to be more critical and demand meaningful and effective prevention and treatment of pain and addiction in our society.
Any thoughtful analysis should begin with drug companies and their collaborators, the insurance companies, being called to account for their role in these tragedies.
Joel B. Levine
Easthampton