Opinion: It’s Time for a New Approach to Opioids as Poison

For the month of September, expect Hagerstown and Washington County to be decorated in purple through the local substance misuse awareness education movement “Washington Goes Purple”. Let me be the first to congratulate Washington Goes Purple on their success. The first step in addressing a problem is acknowledging and recognizing the problem – and the appointment of former Hagerstown mayor Emily Keller as Special Secretary of Opioid Response shows the tremendous success we have achieved in identifying the problem.

However, just like any problem, we must take further steps beyond simply identifying the problem. And while we have taken great strides in helping those addicted to opioids, we must take more action to address the distribution of opioids in the first place, especially dangerous opioids such as fentanyl.

One of the keys in this approach is to classify drug overdoses the same way the FDA does – as poisoning. Year after year, drug poisoning accounts for most poisoning deaths. And yet, we don’t hear about the poisoning crisis, we hear about the drug crisis, or the opioid crisis. To fix this, we must begin addressing this problem as what it really is – a poisoning crisis. And law enforcement and the media need to begin referring to overdose deaths as poisoning deaths, and responding accordingly.

There are two different types of poisonings – accidental and intentional. And unfortunately, while many overdoses are currently classified as “accidental”, the harsh reality is that these overdoses should in fact be classified as negligent or even intentional poisonings. This especially applies when drug dealers cut their drugs with fentanyl – those who do cut the drugs with fentanyl are responsible for intentional poisoning, and those who distribute the drugs are at a minimum negligent.

In 1971, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh developed a character most everyone is familiar with – Mr. Yuk. The entire concept behind Mr. Yuk is to raise awareness to children and adults about poison prevention and promote poison center awareness. And while there have never been any real studies to measure the effectiveness of Mr. Yuk, similar campaigns have now started to help prevent children from accidental ingestion of marijuana. And maybe we can start similar campaigns to help people understand that opioids are just no different than pipe cleaning chemicals or other chemicals commonly labeled with Mr. Yuk stickers – poison. Very few people would intentionally ingest chemicals labeled with Mr. Yuk because we know they’re poison, so aren’t we labeling opioids the same? Why are we not treating opioids as poisonous, despite the fact that the FDA and CDC label drug overdose deaths as poisoning deaths?

If a pharmaceutical company can be fined billions for off-label promotion of drugs, then there’s no reason we can’t hold drug dealers to higher accountability for their actions. Negligent poisoning is manslaughter, and intentional poisoning is murder. By changing the way we speak about drug overdoses, we change the way the public views drug overdoses. Those who overdose are now treated as poisoning victims instead of just “addicts”, and those responsible for the overdoses are treated as distributors of poison. This shift in language, and thinking, changes the whole dynamic of this crisis away from the stigmas of substance abuse and towards helping people understand that opioids are poison, and understand that those who are addicted to opioids are in fact victims of poisoning.

Washington Goes Purple and similar awareness campaigns were the first important step in efforts to combat this poisoning crisis which affects us here in Washington County. But now it’s time to do more, and hold those responsible for negligent and intentional poisoning deaths accountable. And through changing the language and approach to this problem to be more aggressive against the usage of opioids and those who deal opioids, we can do just that, while still offering help for those who have found themselves victims of this terrible crisis.

Opinion article by Ken Buckler, President of Radio Free Hub City. This article does not reflect the views of other contributors or our clients/sponsors.