An OECD report from 2019 revealed a 125% increase in the number of opioid prescriptions dispensed by Israeli physicians over a five-year period, compared to a 13% increase in the rest of Europe. Though many people, including many people within the medical community, feel that Israel is immune to the opioid epidemic, figures from Clalit Healthcare Services indicate that this increase in Israel is dramatic and is concentrated mainly in younger individuals who do not have cancer.
These figures are very alarming. In the US, the opioid epidemic has become a severe health crisis, claiming half a million lives in a decade. Many have lost partners, parents, and children to opioid use, and living with those who have developed an opioid dependency is a fraught and challenging experience. Opioid users often lose employment as a result of their dependency, or fall into deep social or financial crises. The damage is widespread, and repairing it requires both human and financial resources dedicated to helping those affected with physical, mental, and social rehabilitation.
Some opioid manufacturers and suppliers have been sued in American courts and some have admitted to criminality. Even the World Health Organization, which recommended increased access to opioids in the past, has admitted that these recommendations were tainted by a conflict of interests and has withdrawn them. At the same time, in recent years, pharmaceutical companies have managed to convince countless physicians that there is no danger in prescribing strong opioids more freely. Many patients believe that if a painkiller is prescribed by a physician, it cannot be dangerous, and while the names “heroin” or “morphine” evoke a sense of danger, the name Fenta (as Fentanyl is known in Israel) sounds innocuous, even though it is 50 times stronger than heroin.
Last week, Adv. Tamir Blank filed a High Court petition on behalf of PHRI and ‘Lealtar – the Narcotic Patient Support and Assistance Foundation’, demanding the Ministry of Health introduce a requirement to add warning labels to opioid packaging. The label would warn patients of the risks associated with the drugs, including dependency, impaired cognitive functioning, behavioral changes, increased pain, depression, and death. A warning label would allow every patient to make an informed decision to take the drug or not. This petition addresses the use of opioids to treat chronic pain that is unrelated to cancer.
Israel is marching headfirst into an avoidable crisis, an epidemic that has already claimed millions of victims around the world. It’s not too late to try and stem the tide of increased unnecessary opioid use, or to avert the damage to hundreds of thousands of patients. The opioid epidemic was caused by the corporate greed of pharmaceutical companies, and the medical community bears some responsibility for it as well. This petition is a necessary step, at the very least to raise patients’ awareness of the potential harm of these painkillers.
