# 122

As Communities debate the financial burden of cost increases for the opioid antidote (Narcan), how many doses should an individual receive and whether there should be a budgetary cap/limit for abusers; no one has raised the Macro question as to the percentage of allocated funds which should be devoted to persons who have climbed-onto the opioid conveyer belt and younger folks who are not addicted to opioids.

The below quote comes from the Washington Post article linked, below.

Medical Ethics present valid concerns for a variety of positions.  For example, famed Baseball Great, Mickey Mantle, went to the head of the list of persons needing a liver transplant some years ago.  Mantle received a healthy liver and critics questioned the morality saying that Mantle destroyed his God-given liver, therefore, a more worthy recipient should not have been displaced by Mantle.  Others believed that money and fame should not be a determiner for prioritizing organ transplants.

Around the world, snake-bite antidotes are precious treasures due to the costs related to harvesting venom and producing the serum/antidote.  Indeed, costs are a major part of the ethical debate and some stake-out a position that all costs should be borne by society despite the upward cost-creep.

Another facet of the ethical debate could be termed "contributory" since opioid substance users repeatedly purchase and self-administer the fatal opioids; their cycle of abuse-near-death-revival-repeat cycle is seen, by some taxpayers as societal license to re-load.  Conscious re-loading carries large budget increases for municipalities and the Post's article demonstrates some responses from law makers and law enforcement.

At some point, in the U.S., society will need to apportion resources for those not yet addicted to anything (those not on the conveyer belt) and those who climbed onto the conveyor belt.  50% would be a good starting point in a just society!

[With 96 fatal overdoses in just the first four months of this year, Mannix said the opioid epidemic ravaging western Ohio and scores of other communities along the Appalachian Mountains and the rivers that flow from it continues to worsen. Hospitals are overwhelmed with overdoses, small-town morgues are running out space for the bodies, and local officials from Kentucky to Maine are struggling to pay for attempting to revive, rehabilitate or bury the victims.]


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/as-opioid-overdoses-exact-a-higher-price-communities-ponder-who-should-be-saved/2017/07/15/1ea91890-67f3-11e7-8eb5-cbccc2e7bfbf_story.html?utm_term=.48b3ab01960b