Delisting Painkillers Won’t End the Pain

Staff also say the switch in drugs, coupled with the province delisting both forms of the narcotic from the Ontario drug benefit program, could cause an increase in overdose deaths as addicts are forced to turn to more harmful drugs, such as heroin.

If I follow the logic correctly, the theory is that if you remove the substance that’s being abused, then substance abuse will stop.  Those that abuse painkillers like OxyContin do so for purely internal reasons; it’s something they need to get over, with help if necessary, but essentially it’s a “their” problem.

I really hope I’m wrong, because that is so far from the truth as to be cringe-worthy.  Yes, addicts form bio-chemical dependence to substances, but to focus solely on the internal world of the addict is to see but a small fraction of the story.  Look at the broader picture – what are the lives of these people like?  What’s the family life like, the work life like, the social life like?  In short, what external factors might people be trying to escape from?

There is a strong correlation between physical health, mental health and environmental factors.  Look at The Unheralded Business Crisis inCanada as just one example of a report detailing this reality.  In more cases than we would like to admit, back pain, headaches, cardiac issues, etc. can be related to life stresses, like poor work management.  Taking away the options people have to mask these stress-related symptoms isn’t going to solve the problem, only create new ones.

When we tell ourselves addicts or people suffering with mental illness conditions like depression and anxiety are “weak” and just need to “get over it,” we’re sticking our heads in the sand.  The longer we ignore the reality – that our outdated social model is part of the problem – the worse it’s going to get.