The Daily Delegate

Drug addiction is a massive issue in the world today, and it’s claiming lives every day. In our attempt to address this pandemic, we have come up with a bill that aims to regulate harmful drugs, including steroids and opioids.

Steroids and opioids, even when prescribed for medical reasons at times, are highly addictive substances. Even when they are being used for a particular reason, like pain relief or muscle issues, they ultimately become abused. People sometimes try to fake symptoms or trick doctors into prescribing the medication, and for that reason, I believe we should have this bill to stop those people from abusing these drugs again.

From this bill, we are aspiring that those who are prescribed opioids or steroids will undergo monthly screenings to determine whether they still need the drug or not. If not, their prescription is terminated, stopping them from getting addicted. This ensures that people are not unnecessarily using these drugs, avoiding dangerous health problems, both physical and psychological. Also, if the individual is suspected of attempting to take advantage of the system, they can be placed on a watchlist so that other doctors will be alerted in advance before they can prescribe these drugs again.

Why is Addiction Hazardous?

Opioid addiction in particular can have very nasty repercussions on a person’s health. Unless intervened upon, opioid addiction has the potential to lead to:

• Slowed breathing: Opioids have the tendency to slow or even stop breathing, leading to hypoxia (not enough oxygen in the brain) and subsequent brain damage or death.
• Heart issues: Opioids have a tendency to lower the rate of heartbeats, lower blood pressure, and increase the chances of heart failure and cardiac arrest.
• Immune system issues: Opioid use suppresses the immune system and exposes individuals to infection.
• Mental health issues: Long-term use of opioids has been associated with depression and sexual dysfunction.
• Tolerance and overdose risk: With the development of tolerance, higher doses are needed to achieve the same effect, resulting in an extremely high risk of overdose.
• Withdrawal syndrome: Opioids are hard to withdraw from because of extreme withdrawal effects.

Furthermore, steroid use carries high risks, including:

Physical Symptoms:

• Joint pain
• Bad breath
• Hair loss
• Acne
• Changes in appetite
• Oily hair and skin
• Cardiac complications
• Liver injury

Mental Health Impacts:

• Irritability
• Anger
• Poor judgment
• Severe mood swings

For all of these reasons, we strongly believe that our bill is crucial. By regulating opioid and steroid prescriptions, we can decrease the number of addictions, save lives, and spare families from the devastating consequences of drug abuse. This bill can be a real difference, and it’s time for us to act.

Pros

• Will lower the drug addiction rate and save many lives. People will be saved by these tests as we try to stop the addiction before a overdose or a worse addiction                         

• If doctors are found not doing checks they are held accountable and their licenses will be taken away. For the person in possession of  the opioids they will be given a misdemeanor with possession of drugs. To  filter out corrupt doctors/medical practitioners if they are caught falsely prescribing drugs they would lose their license.

• Doctors also in fear of losing their license would abide to the rules of the mandatory testing which would also reduce addiction 

• We will waste less opioids as we find out who really needs them and take them away from the people who abuse them. 

Cons

• It would cost the state a lot of money for all the tests we would have do as it would be monthly so it might have to cut down on other medical expenses which could be unappealing to the California government 

• Doctors may be afraid to give opioids to people in fear of getting their licenses revoked. 

• Patients may not want to take opioids for the fear of getting a misdemeanor for possession of drugs 

• People who need opioids may not be able to go to the test for that month and be charged for no reason 

• Doctors that would have their licenses taken away could no longer practice their work, creating a doctor shortage in which less sick people would get the help they need because of the shortage in doctors.