Self-Inflicted Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease

            In this life, there are a myriad of things out there trying to kill you. As a species, we humans have gotten pretty good at preventing most of those things from killing us. We have shelters that protect us from other animals. We have ways to generate heat to fend off the harsh winter chill. We even have pills that you can swallow, that then dissolve in your digestive tract, release chemical compounds that are subsequently absorbed into your blood stream, and then those chemicals selectively kill organisms within your body while leaving your own cells unscathed. Humans have greatly shifted the leading causes of death through medical intervention. Yet it begs the question who deserves this medical intervention. There are debates about serving the poor, the isolated, the aliens, but the focus today is on the self-inflicted.

            Naloxone is a drug that can be used, in the event of an opioid overdose, to save that person’s life. Some dissent the use of naloxone, as they feel that drug overdoses are self-inflicted, and that somehow effects whether a person deserves to live or not. The logic is that the person brought this upon themself and should suffer the consequences of their own actions. The problem, however, is that those making this argument seem to forget the introduction paragraph in which I mentioned that human deaths have largely shifted over the years. There are still people killed every day by things completely outside of their control. On the other hand, smoking, poor diet, lack of physical activity, these are all lifestyle choices. So, before you judge someone for their inability to kick that pesky heroin habit, remember the thousands of people who couldn’t even lose forty pounds. While we may be doing well on reducing stigma against overweight individuals, the stigma against drug abusers is still very prominent.

            This stigma, unfortunately, carries over to the pharmacy all too often, an area I am intimately familiar with. Prescription drug misuse is a very real problem in the United States, however there is one very important thing to remember about drugs of abuse. Not every person using a drug of abuse, is abusing that drug. One statistic put prescription drug misuse at around fifteen percent of prescription drug users. While that number is disturbingly high, one must not forget that every statistic has two sides. Always remember that eighty-five percent of prescription drug users are using legitimately prescribed medication as directed by the doctor for the purpose of curing or alleviating a medical condition. So, while there will always be people that lie or steal for the purpose of obtaining prescription drugs illegitimately, they are in the minority.

            -AMS