590. Can $55 Billion End the Opioid Epidemic?

590. 550亿美元能否结束阿片类药物流行?

Freakonomics Radio

社会与文化

2024-05-30

40 分钟
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单集简介 ...

Thanks to legal settlements with drug makers and distributors, states have plenty of money to boost prevention and treatment. Will it work? (Part two of a two-part series.)

单集文稿 ...

  • When I say the opioid crisis or the opioid epidemic, you probably say, enough already.

  • I understand you are sick of hearing about it.

  • We are more than 25 years in.

  • If you use the introduction of OxyContin as the onset of this crisis, which most smart people in the field do.

  • OxyContin is a powerful medical pain reliever that its manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, promised would not addict its users the way other opioids can.

  • This was a big deal, since many millions of people seek out pain relief, whether intermittently or regularly.

  • But that non addictive promise, it turned out to be wrong.

  • Addiction to OxyContin and then similar drugs from other pharma firms spiraled into a public health catastrophe.

  • In 20, 23, 81,000 people in the US died from an opioid overdose, more than ten times the number in 1999.

  • So the problem has continued to worsen.

  • Many of the current overdoses arent from prescription drugs like OxyContin, but from black market versions, or from other drugs that contain fentanyl.

  • Thats another synthetic opioid that began as a medical drug and which is far more powerful than most opioids.

  • Fentanyl has now worked its way into the supply of street drugs in the US, most of it smuggled across the mexican border by american citizens.

  • A great many people, policymakers, medical professionals and regulators, parents, law enforcement, they've all spent the past few decades trying to end the opioid crisis, but without much success.

  • So as sick as you may be of hearing about it, imagine being the parent of someone who died from fentanyl, or the husband, or the child.

  • Although you might not have to imagine, you probably know someone who's experienced this kind of tragedy.

  • It's that common.

  • Last week, in part one of this two part series, we asked a simple why?

  • Why is the opioid crisis still raging after all these years?

  • There are actually a lot of correct answers to that question.