Introduction
The present opioid misuse and overdose crisis has emerged as one of the most devastating and lethal problems the world has ever faced. Although the pharmaceutical companies in the 1990s reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to the medications, healthcare practitioners began to overprescribe them (Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs, n.d.).
Strategies to Mitigate Opioid Crisis in Georgia
However, according to the Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs (n.d.), the high prescription rates later led to increased misuse of non-prescription and prescription opioids before the medical community understood that the medications were addictive. As a result of the adverse impacts of these drugs, there have been immense concerns about the issue. Thus, Georgia can prevent the opioid crisis by formulating state prescription laws and limiting the flow of illicit opioids.
Georgia should enact numerous regulatory and legal strategies to address opioid abuse, drug misuse, and overdose. Specifically, there is a need to formulate and enforce prescription drug practices to guide the prescription and dispensation of opioids and laws to allow health practitioners to assess a client before prescribing opioids (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018). All Georgian policymakers should make it mandatory to have state legal agencies that facilitate the doctors and help them prevent selling opioids to a single consumer in different centers. Hence, the most basic plan to prevent and mitigate the opioid crisis in Georgia is to enact laws to prevent opioid abuse, overdose, and misuse. Moreover, the state must limit the distribution and selling of illicit opioids to prevent the opioid crisis. Evidence shows that opioid-related deaths emerge from illicit opioids like illegally manufactured fentanyl or heroin (Homer & Wakeland, 2021).
Conclusion
In conclusion, Georgia should establish collaborative efforts across borders to gather and update data about the distribution and use of opioids. The plan is to massively invest in research to understand the current trends leading to abuse and curb any illegal manufacturing of opioids.
References
Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs (ASPA). (n.d.). What is the U.S. opioid epidemic? HHS.gov. Web.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018).CDC – prescription drugs – publications and resources – public health law. Web.
Homer, J., & Wakeland, W. (2021). A dynamic model of the opioid drug epidemic with implications for policy. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 47(1), 5-15.