Prompt 8: Describe existing and proposed strategies to address your issue. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed strategies. Describe contrasts in the way different people, places, and things are impacted by these strategies.

    It should first be noted that for these strategies to be ever planned out and applied to these situations, comprehensive research must be done first. High-income countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom have the financial stability to invest in these types of research to find proper solutions for these issues. But middle-income and low-income countries still don’t have the financial stability for them to properly research these matters. Research isn’t the only way to find solutions even though it might give ideas for solutions that we may never have thought of it. Strategies can also be created by just looking at obvious problems and plenty of hospitals in middle- and low-income countries have done just that. Some strategies that lots of hospitals of all income countries have implemented are always recommending alternative pain medications before prescribing a serious dose of opioids, communicating with suppliers for alternative short pain-relieving medicine, looking out for supply and usage, and updating to new medications whenever necessary that is better than opioids as for chances of addictiveness. These strategies are advantageous to all countries because they help solve problems of individuals not getting addicted quickly to opioids, if opioids are not available, alternatives can help in countries where individuals need some sort of pain medication, and always keeping track of supply helps alert everybody when there could be the chance of shortage so arrangements can be made to handle them.

    For high-income countries, shortages tend to rise but the main problem that occurs is people start to rely too much on these drugs. There are a few strategies applied by these countries to tackle shortages of individuals being dependent on opioids, and opioids mixed with other substances that roam in certain communities. Some of these strategies are to create programs for populations that abuse drugs, education and prevention methods, stricter enforcement and policies, and a tracking system that warns hospitals when shortages could start to arise. The advantage of these strategies is that it helps people recover from their addictive behaviors and if warnings of shortages can be spotted, proper planning can occur to solve that problem. The only disadvantage of this would be that there is always that chance of people not recovering at all and their life becoming worse than before.

    For middle-income and low-income countries, their strategies will be similar and different depending on the situation. For certain countries where individuals have plentiful access to cheap drugs, governmental policies and international guidelines need to be changed. By doing so, these would be the advantages, drug smuggling would stop tremendously, it would stop the flow of drugs which in turn help individuals that need those drugs and stop others from being dependent on them, and by working on international guidelines, it will help countries work together to distribute these drugs wherever it may be needed at certain times. As for disadvantages, there always be people that will seek ways to smuggle these drugs into these countries and even mix them with dangerous substances because people have been too dependent from the start. For certain countries where individuals need these pain medications but can’t due to regulations, strategies that need to be implemented are to change government restrictions, communicate with suppliers, and provide alternatives when needed. From this, the advantages would be that surgeries can take place, and individuals can be given proper opioids when needed and don’t have to suffer a great deal of pain. Providing alternatives can be somewhat effective in helping individuals who could not have the addictive behaviors that opioids have. The only disadvantage would be that this would take a considerable amount of time no matter when they start.