The Immorality of Profiting Off Opioid Addiction

A Visceral, Empathy-Building Experience

The visceral reality of the opioid crisis struck home for me in the past month. After going through knee surgery, I was put on prescription opioids. This was as it should have been; letting pain get ahead of you is certainly dangerous to your body’s ability to heal. My healthcare providers were caring and kind. However, they provided me no instruction in how to get off opioids. They gave me no warning that in a matter of days my body could become dependent on the drug. In fact, I was told that if I merely used the medications for pain, I would not become addicted. Since I know these medical providers cared about me, I am left to conclude that they were either indoctrinated by wrong information from drug companies or were so overworked that they forgot to mention this information.

Around day ten, thinking of these pain medications like OTC pills, I decided to go off them cold turkey (actually, I was unaware the medication I was still on was in fact an opioid; I thought it was less potent than the secondary narcotic I had been given and had already stopped using). No one had told me not to go cold turkey, and since I felt I was taking too many pills and didn’t really need them anymore, I felt the responsible thing to do would be to simply abstain.

Within a matter of hours, I was nauseous, experiencing panic attacks and crying jags, sore from leg aches. At first I didn’t know what was wrong with me. After some googling, I discovered that yes, you can become physically dependent on opioids just that fast, and yes, I was experiencing withdrawal symptoms. And no, you should not go off these medications cold turkey. Once I discovered what was wrong, I began tapering off the medication. It wasn’t as bad as cold turkey, but let me tell you … that was not a pleasant few days.

Experiencing this level of symptoms after only a week and a half, I began to empathize viscerally with what opioid addicts go through. Perhaps many of them were not educated on how to get off the medication either. Perhaps without that information, they found themselves popping pill after pill until they were hopelessly addicted, seeking to stave off the anxiety that rose before the next dose. Perhaps they tried to get off but were hit with waves of horrific panic attacks. Perhaps the shame of this forced them back on the medication rather than out into the light where healing can be found. Because I managed to figure all this out so quickly and because I had the support of family and friends, I didn’t have that shame. But what about those who don’t have those resources?

People who are physically dependent or later addicted to opioids are vulnerable. They need good information to empower them. They need to be taught what they may go through after the necessary use of narcotics and how to get off as quickly as possible. They need to be taught how to taper off and what they may experience while undergoing that process.

What they don’t need is a pharmaceutical company to see them as a new market, more profitable if they are kept addicted, sweeping in to sell them new rounds of medications, taking advantageous of them in their vulnerability. This is immoral.

Christian Morality Is Desperately Needed

Our culture is in desperate need of morality, a mindset that puts people above profit and greed. Sadly, many Christians have succumbed to a greedy mindset and have failed to be the salt and light that we are called to be. I say this because the same mindset that puts profit before the needs of patients is the one that endorses compromise for the sake of political profit. All this creates a toxic cultural stew in which Christians abdicate their moral authority in order not to lose cynical political power.

But compromise matters. It will affect the culture in a hundred different unforeseen ways. Including this one. Morality should never go out of style. Moral trumpeting is not enough; moral consistency is necessary if we expect anyone to take our profession of moral values seriously at all.

The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the foreigner, denying them justice. …

So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.–Ezekiel 22:29, 31 NIV

Questions for Discussion

How have you seen people take advantage of those already vulnerable?

Have you ever seen someone resist the urge to profit off the vulnerability of the poor or suffering? What kind of impact did that have on you?

What are your thoughts on the Old Testament passages condemning exploitation of the poor and vulnerable?

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