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Calvin Fausey White paper

January 27, 2017

Government Sharon Graham

Metro Early College High School

Opiate Return
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Ohio is facing a terrible drug problem. Well over one thousand people people died in

2015 just from opioid overdoses. A change is in order. DeMaria, superintendent of Ohio, has

said With this challenge, Ohio students will put their learning to the test to help solve a critical

challenge facing our state (Media). Students all across Ohio are creating unique solutions to this

problem and this is one of them.

The opioid epidemic is such a threat because it can affect anybody. Previous drug

epidemics have been almost exclusively impacted more rural communities, such as crack

cocaine. Opiates however can impact anyone through becoming addicted to a prescribed pain

killer. A relatively common story is one where a high schooler gets injured playing sports.

Taking their prescribed medication, they might become addicted. Moving on to get their

addiction filled by those who buy and resell opiates at or near their school. And when the

prescription medication becomes too expensive or doesnt provide enough of a high, move on to

other opiates like heroine (How). The solution here is to stop people from ever becoming

addicted in the first place.

The solution proposed here is opiate return, opiate return will aid in the prevention of

addiction and the gathering of new information. The concept is that when someone is prescribed

opioids, the pharmaceutical company will be required to inform them of the following: If for

whatever reason, one who is prescribed medication containing opioids does not take their entire

prescription, then they can return what is left of said prescription to the pharmaceutical company

for a cash reward. This program would serve several purposes. For example, the effectiveness of

various doses of opiates can be reasonably measured and compared. Fewer prescribed drugs will

be on the street because there is a legal way, with an incentive, to get rid of them. Additionally,
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there will be less likelihood of one taking more opioids than are truly necessary for ones pain,

decreasing the chance of addiction. Decreasing the availability of prescription opiates on the

street through a buyback system would play a crucial role in the curing of the opiate epidemic.

To specify what this proposal entails, it will, amongst other things, decrease the number

of prescription opiates being illegally resold. Far too often, a patient will be over prescribed an

opiate and find that the pain they were experiencing was relatively brief and have half a

prescription gathering dust in a cupboard. With this in mind, there are those who illegally abuse

the system often purchase from those who have been prescribed such a substance to resell for a

potentially great profit. Alternatively, said opiates could be resold, legally, to their prescribed

company for a cash incentive. Logically, if one was prescribed thirty oxycodone after a tooth is

pulled and they only take a third their prescription, who wouldnt at least consider taking a cash

offer on those twenty odd pills? With incentive way to get money for half a prescription that

would either gather dust or be resold illegally, this provides a solution that will decrease those

amounts and prevent future addictions.

The chief concerns for this would be funding. Where will the money for the cash

incentive come from? However, there has been a massive 6.3 billion dollar grant grant created by

Obama, one billion of which specifically for fighting the opioid epidemic. The Department of

Health and Human Services (HHS) grants states to said funding. Through this proposal, ideally

the very specifics of this new system will be defined by a group of professionals and be funded

by the HHS. The street value of opiates varies greatly but it can get as high as 50 to 60 dollars

per pill for, what normally are, prescribed opioids (Hosea). The refund price per pill should be a

flat ten per pill. This is below average street price but would be a reasonable amount for a few
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reasons. Firstly, dealers would purchase opiates, from others, for less than street price then resell

them at or above street price to make profit. Paying to little would incentivise people to sell for

the best possible price and paying too much would be too costly and raise the street price greatly.

The best price would take into account all of this and the risk factor involved with selling. When

selling to the company that prescribed, there is no risk, when selling to anyone else, one is

committing a felony. For all these reasons, the price per pill return of any opiate drug is

recommended to be initially set at ten dollars a pill.

This program will have other benefits as well. For example, it is difficult to judge the

appropriate amount of opiates needed for pain, because of the variety of individuals pain

thresholds. With this new system, it could be reasonably measured the relation between how

much pain and how much medication is used. Along with this, one would be informed, as soon

as prescribed their opiate, about the legal ability to return what might be left of a prescription.

Whilst being informed of the legal way to resell, they would also be told how it is a felony to

resell any prescribed medication otherwise, decreasing ones likelihood to pick the riskier option

(Seeliger). There is so much that can be learned and benifited from this policy that it would be

redicuous to not at least consider it.

An alternative solution presented would be to simply decrease the number of opiates

given per prescription. This way everyone would be prescribed a limited amount and if in need,

could get said prescription refilled. This would also allow the measurement of the relation

between opioids prescribed and opioids taken but with a major drawback. Most opiates

recommend extreme caution when operating heavy machinery, like cars (Pain). Under a

misfortunate series of events, one could turn up without enough pain medications, unable to cash
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in another prescription and trapped in a limbo without medication. The previous proposal does

not have this risk. While the minimum prescription amount may have reason to be changed, it is

an absolutely different proposal and would work in parallel to this one.

In conclusion, this is a solution that will help push back the opioid epidemic. A way to

decrease the number of opiates on the street, decrease the likelyhood of addiction, provide

information to biild an accurate referance between level of pain and more. By buying back

prescription opioids for ten dollars a pill, the opioid epedemic is one that is conquerable.
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Work Cited

"Addictions And Recovery Website: Opiates." Addictions And Recovery. N.p., n.d. Web. 02

Feb. 2017. <http://www.addictionsandrecovery.org/opiates-narcotics-recovery.htm>.

Hosea, Devin. "What Is the Predictive Value of STREET PRICES in Determining Potential

for Misuse of Substances?" Researchgate.net. N.p., n.d. Web.

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_in_determining_potential_for_misuse_of_substances+>.

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Drug Abuse? | National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2017.

<https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/heroin/how-heroin-linked-to-p

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<http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/guide/narcotic-pain-medications#1>.

Seeliger, Bruce. "Selling Prescription Drugs Illegally | Criminal Law."

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