February 26, 2018 by Stephanie Farid

At one point in time, Florida dispensed 65 percent of  all opioid prescriptions in America.

Opioids are prescription pain relievers used for treating acute pain. Their original intended use was for war victims, however they are currently being used by more than 30 percent of all Americans for chronic pain.

According to Gilles Raguin, a medical doctor trained in internal medicine and infectious disease, in a comparison between France and the United States, in the past year alone, France had five times less deaths from opioids, and simultaneously there were five times less opioid prescriptions written. This was no coincidence.

The panel titled “How’d we get hooked? The opioid pandemic and what to do about it” at the St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs examined what approach researchers and doctors would like to take towards the opioid epidemic currently in America.

The panel, lead by moderator Iqbal Paroo, featured Donna Petersen Dean of the College of Public Health at USF, Joannie Bewa a physician, and an international expert in public health, the USF director of the Substance Abuse Recovery Program and psychiatrist Michael Sheehan, Board Certified Health Care Attorney Susan Tuite and Gilles Raguin.

The panel discussed the importance of the opioid issue that we currently face.

The issue worsened when “pill mills” started to open up. Pill mills are pain clinics that do not explore any means of treating pain, other than opioid prescriptions. They make more money that way.

“We need to be much more aggressive on exploring different ways to manage pain,” said Petersen.

Petersen also explained that there were many different, possibly more effective ways to manage pain, that go unexplored.

To fix the issue that was already started, since the majority of people started on opioids are addicted, there are solutions.

There are clinics that help addicts, and there are other drugs available to help stop the addiction.

The issue with trying to stop the addiction is the negative connotation that comes with being an “addict”.  Besides that, many insurances would rather pay for the opioid drugs than the replacement therapy. So all around it has been made more of a hassle to get help rather than continue with the addiction.

“The more you learn that it’s such a problem, the more driven you are to help and try to do something about it,” said Sharon Wadsworth, a member of the audience.