Illicit and Prescription Drug Use Pandemic Calls for Global Health Policy Actions

Abstract

World use of psychoactive drugs among adolescents and adults is on the rise. Illicit and prescription drug abuse take lives, fans morbidity from overdose, and challenges infection control for many pathogens. In 2008, the global trade for heroin was estimated at 55 billion USD and opium at about 7 to 10 billion USD (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2009). The impacts on health-care costs and countries' GDPs are difficult to assess. According to the World Health Organization, more than 15 million people are addicted to illicit opiates, such as opium, morphine, and heroin (World Health Organization, 2014). Heroin is administered by injections, causing local and blood-borne diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C. Recent epidemiologic trends suggest that populations in countries of the European Union are at higher risk of heroin abuse, and in Asia of opium use (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2009). According to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2014 about 125 Americans died every day from illicit or prescription drug abuses, and this number is on the rise (Friedersdorf, 2016). Evidence suggests that existing policies and practices are ineffective in handling this problem. Many of the victims also suffer from poverty, homelessness, and violence. In 2007 alone, illicit drug use cost the United States more than 193 billion USD in lost productivity, health-care, and criminal-justice costs (Office of National Drug Control Policy, 2014). This situation attracted the attention of U.S. President Barack Obama and the nation, as encapsulated in a 2016 statement released by the White House noting that “nationwide, drug-induced overdose deaths now surpass homicides and car crash deaths in America” (The White House, 2016). To help address this issue, President Obama increased funding for treatment by 1.4 billion USD, between FY2012 and FY2014 (The White House, 2016). the facilities were neither part of the criminal justice system nor did they provide evidence-based rehabilitation treatment. While doctors sometimes worked inside the centres, they were typically run by police or the military and suspected drug users were often detained without regard to legal standards, procedural safeguards or actual need for treatment. (International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organisations, 2011) In 2015, the United Nations endorsed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030, based on human-rights principles to ensure the health and well-being of the world population (Griggs et al., 2013). The SDGs reaffirmed the responsibility of states to rely on the best scientific evidence underpinning health and medical policies (Griggs et al., 2013). The UN General Assembly is convening a special session on the world drug problem from April 19 to 21, 2016 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. In accordance with its resolutions 67/193 of 20 December 2012, 69/200 of 18 December 2014, and 70/181 of 17 December 2015, the special session will consider changes in policies and practices to control the abuse of prescription and illicit drugs and expand the role of the use of scientific evidence and public health (International Drug Policy Consortium, 2016). The time has come to address and implement evidence-based policies and enhance the role of interventions recognizing the social and health issues associated with the use and abuses of illicit and prescription drugs.