Introduction
The opioid epidemic is one of the most important public health issues facing the United States today. In the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies took advantage of the increased attention to pain management and convinced physicians that opioids were safe and non-addictive pain relievers (Lyden & Binswanger, 2019). Opioid prescribing surged, peaking at 81.2 prescriptions per 100 persons in 2010 (Lyden & Binswanger, 2019, p. 124). Non-medical and diversion use of opioids such as heroin and fentanyl also multiplied. Misuse has led to a record 107,000 opioid overdoses in 2021, which translates to roughly one overdose every 5 minutes (Stobbe, 2022, para. 1, 2). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has published an illustrative guide to understanding the opioid epidemic on its official webpage.
Media Example
The article published by HHS provides some historical background and official statistics on the opioid crisis. It blames the misuse of prescription and non-prescription opioids on the pharmaceutical companies that promoted them without fully researching the risks of addiction. A graphic guide illustrates that a record 70,630 people died from a drug overdose in 2019, 10.1 million misused prescription opioids, and 1.6 million had an opioid use disorder in the past year (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2021, para. 4). The webpage provides additional hyperlinks to understanding the opioid epidemic and the HHS 5-Point Strategy to Combat the Opioid Crisis.
Sociologic Perspective
The sociologic perspective that best fits the HHS webpage is functionalism. Functionalism is a theory pioneered by Emile Durkheim that focuses on the macro-level perspective and how society is created and upheld through social structures (Brown, 2013). The HHS does not explain the crisis through the lens of individual micro-level experience. Rather, it concentrates on the interdependent and interactive institutions that contributed to opioid overprescribing: the “pharmaceutical companies,” “medical community,” and “healthcare providers” (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2021, para. 1). HHS explains the current opioid epidemic as the result of widespread institutional failures, which aligns with the macro-level functionalist perspective.
Strengths and Weaknesses
The HHS media example takes a compassionate stance regarding opioid addicts but does not properly explain the phenomenon of opioid misuse. Its strengths include the fact that it acknowledges the role played by pharmaceutical companies and the medical community, thereby treating opioid addicts as the victims of corporate greed rather than individual failures. However, it fails to mention that the burgeoning opioid crisis was compounded by the approval of oxycodone as a safe and effective painkiller by the Food and Drug Administration (Lyden & Binswanger, 2019). Furthermore, it does not address the structural causes of substance misuse, such as poverty, social marginalization, and mental health issues. The HHS webpage recognizes the impact of pharmaceutical corporations on the opioid epidemic but not the mistakes committed by governmental entities or the rising wealth inequality that contributes to substance abuse.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the article published by the HHS is a summary of the opioid crisis, but it should not be regarded as an in-depth analysis that fully captures all the factors involved. It provides some historical background and statistics but does not address the role played by the government or other structural forces in augmenting the issue. Therefore, it does not adequately illustrate the functionalist perspective because Durkheim believed that each part of society is interdependent and contributes to society’s stable functioning. However, the HHS media example completely shifts the blame for opioid overprescribing on pharmaceutical companies instead of acknowledging the shared responsibility of various social institutions.
References
Brown, S. (2013). Functionalism [Video]. Youtube.
Lyden, J., & Binswanger, I. A. (2019). The United States opioid epidemic.Seminars in Perinatology, 43(3), 123-131.
Stobbe, M. (2022). Opioid crisis: U.S. overdose deaths hit record 107K last year, CDC says. ABC. Web.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2021). What is the U.S. opioid epidemic? Web.