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A quick note before I begin talking about politicization around medicine. This article is not a political statement of any kind. My only advice to people when it comes to their health is that they listen to their own doctors and trusted medical experts. When discussing some of these recently politicized medical issues, some people may mistake science and opinion. We must not lose the ability to state medical science as fact when there is a consensus of thinking on a subject or strong peer-reviewed data has been produced. Pointing out the high level of efficacy achieved by MRNA vaccines is science, and misstating those same facts is something very different, whether someone is doing it for financial or political gain, or because they have been taken in by conspiratorial thinking. Certainly, I have my own biases and political beliefs, but when it comes to medicine and this blog, I always depend upon research drawn from the peer reviewed journals that I search using the Indiana Inspire state library database, and my references for an article are always at the bottom of the page under my name.
A New Era of Politics and Medicine
The politicization of medical treatments and diseases may, in fact, not be a completely new phenomenon. However, without delving back into the history of medical science for examples where politics affected medicine, we can simply say that Covid-19 has brought this issue to the forefront in the popular consciousness. It seemed to happen very quickly, without any real discussion of the long-term implications for our society. A pandemic began under somewhat mysterious circumstances in an authoritarian country that is not friendly to the United States, and we had one reason for politics to be involved in the Covid-19 story. The anti-vax movement is certainly not new, as we were debating the costs of allowing parents to possibly have their children spreading previously defeated illnesses like measles and mumps just a few years ago and at many stages before that. Maybe the largest single reason for the deep political divides over Covid-19 come down to the sheer scale of the problem. When a pandemic becomes global, and millions of people are sick and billions are at risk, entire governments will naturally be the ones who are making decisions and setting aside resources to deal with the problem. Distrust in the government predates the founding of our country, and certainly exists the world over, so the natural need for government action laid the groundwork for anti-government sentiment to enter the discussion.
If all that wasn’t enough, we know that our society is still largely scientifically illiterate, yet throughout the pandemic we have had people from every conceivable walk of life talking about “doing their own research”, even if they have never learned how to do research of any kind. Now more than ever, simply listening to one’s doctor when it comes to health issues is not enough for many people. Most importantly though, for today’s discussion, if all those factors worked together to make Covid-19 a political nightmare, could this politicization of medicine happen in the future when it comes to diseases where the same factors are not in play? Fentanyl overdoses, and drug overdoses in general, seem to be an interesting test case for that very scenario. For several years now we have been discussing the seriousness of the opioid epidemic and the dangerous new risks associated with the switch from heroin to fentanyl, but just this week I have been seeing more stories related to the “politics” of this fentanyl issue. This begs the question; is all media coverage of the drug overdose epidemic a positive? And furthermore, can we effectively listen to trusted experts when a health issue becomes so politically polarizing? In part 1 of this multi-part examination, we will discuss the politicization of the fentanyl crisis and the reasons it may be happening, and in the second part we will discuss the ways which experts believe we must fight the overdose epidemic. As always, if you or a loved one needs treatment from the best drug and alcohol rehab in Florida, Florida Springs in Panama City offers the best substance abuse treatment in the country at the most affordable possible cost to patients and families.
Recent Coverage of Fentanyl Overdoses
Anyone who has been reading this blog over the last two years will know that we discuss Fentanyl on this blog a lot. One article that I published that is relevant to this discussion is called, “Criminal Organizations Want You Addicted to All the Deadliest Drugs.” That article made many of my stances on this issue very clear. Fentanyl is mainly coming from China and Mexico. There is already enough Fentanyl in the United States to kill all of us many times over. With that huge oversupply of fentanyl already in this country, our only route to fight overdoses from Fentanyl is to lessen demand for the drug and treat Americans for addiction and drug use in more effective ways. Over the last week it has been reported that 116 Republican members of congress wrote a letter blaming the Biden administration and it’s “open-border policies on the southern border” for the current state of the opioid epidemic. This makes me sad for various reasons, all related to the fact that I believe this politicization of the issue gets us further away from the correct treatment path. No American president, certainly including Biden and Trump, has taken aggressive effective action in changing course on how we treat drug addiction in this country. Fentanyl and Meth were flowing into the United States under the previous administration and no letter was written, but that is not the point. The important point, for me, is that the only media coverage around the fentanyl overdose issue is for all the wrong reasons and does not include any mention of policies that could effectively fight the opioid epidemic. The letter asks the Biden administration to increase criminal penalties for drug possession. Obviously if that course of action was effective, we would have won the war on drugs long ago. The Rockefeller Drug Laws did not end the crack epidemic and increasing penalties for fentanyl possession will only add to the misery this drug causes in the lives of Americans.
The other reason politicization of medical issues is problematic is that it causes people to change the narrative around a particular subject, and we get farther and farther from the crux of the issue at hand. The immigration crisis at the border, and the ideological divide around immigration, should not be a factor in the treatment of patients for drug and alcohol use disorders. Unfortunately, this letter and other news coverage in the wake of this letter has expressly tied the fentanyl epidemic to the Biden Administration’s policies at the border. Anyone who cares about this issue will understand that the problems with fentanyl and opioid overdoses predate the current administration and are much too big for any single president to be at fault. If people believe that the fentanyl overdose issue is a political football to be argued over, we can forget about making any actual progress towards funding more treatment and changing unproven policies around drugs and alcohol. Tomorrow I will go into the policies we need enacted to actually save lives. Roughly 60,000 people a year are dying from fentanyl, and many of those people are in the prime of their lives, so we need real policies and real action to lessen that terrible impact. If you or a loved one needs to speak to a specialist at the best drug and alcohol rehab in Florida, call our Panama City facility today.
By T.A. Cannon
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