Addiction is a complicated, chronic, and severe illness since it affects the proper operations of the brain. Besides, it leads to relapse that contribute to habitual drug seeking and utilization (Meier, 2016). Although the users in the first instant may use the drug willingly, chemicals in the substances influence the self-control process of the individual so that continuous utilizations become uncontrolled. Some of the drugs such as marijuana, opioids, and heroin act as neurotransmitters, affecting the typical communications in brain interaction. Similarly, methamphetamine and cocaine work in a different way by releasing dopamine which triggers the reward hub of the brain while also prompting the brain to release minimal dopamine certainly (Dart et al., 2015). When the use of drug becomes habitual, the tolerance of the user increases hence the tolerance of the user rises with a necessity to utilize large amount of the drug to achieve a high. Ultimately, it affects the proper functioning of the brain such as self-control, memory, and critical thinking (Kolodny et al., 2015).
Addiction in the United States has become a serious problem in the country. Statistics indicate that more than 20 million people countrywide over 12 years of age are suffering from addiction. Moreover, approximately 100 individuals lose their lives daily because of drug overdoses (Dart et al., 2015). Surprisingly, the rate has increased by three-fold in the past two decades. Moreover, nearly five million visits to the emergency rooms were related to addiction to drugs. Addiction to alcohol affects more than 2.6 million persons while 9.4 million persons were arrested because of driving the influence in 2011 (Kolodny et al., 2015). Empirical evidence highlights that addition to drugs is linked to mental illnesses as 6.8 million were found to be suffering from mental disease. The use of illicit drugs is quite high among persons between 18-25 years of age. More than 90 percent of persons experiencing addiction started utilization of illicit drugs, smoking, and drinking prior to their 18th birthday (Connors et al., 2013).
Documented Solutions
The federal government has introduced a policy meant to help in combating the issue of drug addiction in the country. The multifaceted approach is designed to increase the treatment and resource facilities as well as raise the availability of naloxone to deal with this nationwide problem. Naloxone helps to counter the impacts of substances such as opioids overdoses (Meier, 2016). The multifaceted plan concentrates of the use of naloxone, prescriber education, and medication-enabled treatment. The initiative intends to minimize dependence, death, heroin- and opioid-prescription and overdose (Dart et al., 2015).
The HHS pays close attention on three main areas which include provision of educational and training resources. Precisely, it provides advanced prescriber guidelines, to help health professional in arriving at well-versed prescribing choices (Kolodny et al., 2015). Secondly, it aims to raise the utilization of naloxone coupled with continuous support in the distribution and development of the drug which intends to minimize the rate of deaths linked to overdose of heroin and opioid. Thirdly, the program is aimed at increasing the utilization of medication-assisted treatment, which integrates the application of medication with behavioral and counseling therapies to manage disorders caused by substance abuse (Meier, 2016).
HHS will also tackle the problem of addiction in the society by assisting the health care experts to make better prescribing choices by partnering with policymakers on bipartisan laws that would need explicit training for appropriate prescribing of drugs such as opioids (Dart et al., 2015). In addition, it attempts to discover ways for formulating new prescribing plans for drugs to deal with chronic pain. Moreover, it helps to reinforce data-sharing by promoting prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs). The organization will also encourage integration of health information technology (IT) and enhancing advanced use of automated prescription practices (Meier, 2016). Furthermore, it will raise investment in the prevention interventions at the state level to help in monitoring the prescription of drugs such as opioid and reinforcing necessary management of pain. The government will also increase the funding of this program (Connors et al., 2013).
A wide range of addiction educational programs have been committed to the practices of safe prescription of drugs, the efforts can be spread out and publicized. The majority of these efforts are made of tools such as screening tools, consent forms, and pain contracts for basic behavioral substance abuse or health issues which the family physicians must pull out and embrace for the utilization in their personal offices (Meier, 2016).
The HHS agency aims to escalate the utilization of naloxone by backing the approval, review, and development of emerging naloxone products and alternatives for delivery. It also encourages the utilization of funds such as Substance Abuse Block Grants at the state level which help in buying the naloxone. Moreover, it intends to execute the Prescription Drug Overdose prepared by the CDC and its grant system for the states governments to buy naloxone (Dart et al., 2015). Secondly, it helps to educate first responders on the utilization of the naloxone program. Since naloxone is the main drug which is applied to revive more persons suffering from drug use especially, opioid abuse, most of the state governments have started to introduce ways to enhance the accessibility of naloxone to emergency health experts and law enforcement officers who are the main responders (Kolodny et al., 2015).
Documented evaluations of the pros and cons of the solution
The Multifaceted approach has various advantages and disadvantages in prevention of addiction problem in the United States. Some of the advantages of this program are that it is designed to provide training and education to professionals and addicts (Dart et al., 2015). For instance, it introduces the utilization of medications coupled with behavioral and counseling therapies to help deal with addiction disorder. Importantly, the medication-assisted treatment uses naloxone, buprenorphine, and methadone which are the established ways to help patients in the recovery of opioid addiction. More essentially, this process is safe, cost-effective, minimizes the threat of overdose, raising the retention of treatment and enhances the social functioning (Meier, 2016). In addition, the use of multifaceted approach is essential because it lowers the chance of criminal activity and minimizes the possibility of transmission of infectious diseases.
However, the multifaceted approach has few shortcomings. For instance, it pays close attention to opioid but fails to address other substance abuse such as alcohol, marijuana and tobacco use. Moreover, the funding plans to support only 16 states in executing strong prevention programs in enhancing safe prescription techniques (Kolodny et al., 2015). Finally, the sustainability of the program is not guarantee because it highly depends on finances from the federal governments.
Conclusion
The United States has witnessed an increase in the substance abuse in the recent past. Statistics indicates that more than 20 million people in the country above 12 years of age are addicted to drugs. Moreover, the country loses 100 persons per day because of overdoses of drugs. The proportion of those affected by the problem is increasing each day (Meier, 2016). For this reason, the country has introduced the multifaceted approach which is designed to tackle the issue of substance abuse by delivering educational and training resources, utilization of naloxone, and increasing application of medication-assisted treatment.
References
Connors, G. J., DiClemente, C. C., Velasquez, M. M., " Donovan, D. M. (2013). Substance abuse treatment and the stages of change: Selecting and planning interventions. Guilford Press.
Dart, R. C., Surratt, H. L., Cicero, T. J., Parrino, M. W., Severtson, S. G., Bucher-Bartelson, B., " Green, J. L. (2015). Trends in opioid analgesic abuse and mortality in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 372(3), 241-248.
Kolodny, A., Courtwright, D. T., Hwang, C. S., Kreiner, P., Eadie, J. L., Clark, T. W., " Alexander, G. C. (2015). The prescription opioid and heroin crisis: a public health approach to an epidemic of addiction. Annual review of public health, 36, 559-574.
Meier, K. J. (2016). The Politics of Sin: Drugs, Alcohol and Public Policy: Drugs, Alcohol and Public Policy. Routledge.
