Sometimes we want to blame the medical community for the opiate epidemic our nation is now stuck in. But as it turns out, the vast majority of doctors have nothing to do with the overprescribing of addictive pain meds. In fact, only a small percentage of doctors are contributing to this serious problem.

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For decades, drug addiction has been a problem in the United States. We continuously see the daily headlines of terror and trauma relating to addiction. We are inclined to think that this is a new problem. In actual fact, this is not a new problem at all. There is just more of the problem.

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The issue with opioid pain relievers has the appearance of one of those unsolvable paradoxes. If we reduce access to opioid pharmaceuticals considerably, patients who experience chronic and severe pain issues might not be able to access pain relief. But in that same token, if we continue to accept opioid pharmaceuticals as standard medical practice and utilize them to the degree that we are, millions of Americans will become addicted to them, and thousands will die from overdoses on them. That is the brutal truth of the matter.

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It’s easy to get swept up talking about the horrendous morass of difficulty and unpleasantries that come with our country’s drug addiction epidemic. There is certainly enough bad news to go around. But as the media tends to only focus on the bad news and the hardship, let’s talk about the really good things that are being done to reduce the drug problem.

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In early October 2016, the Drug Enforcement Administration released an order to pharmaceutical manufacturers to reduce the number of controlled prescription drugs that could be made in 2017. While this action is designed to reduce the number of pills on the market and being abused, there’s no guarantee that those in pain may suffer in the transition.

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