California - Opioid

As of January 2019, The Department of Public Health issued an alert regarding the abuse of opioid-based prescriptions. Since 2010, the number of opioid-related drug overdoses has increased significantly. The Department of Public Health suggested some of the most significant ways to avoid opioid abuse it to change the way opioids are prescribed to patients. For example, the current* method is having medical care professionals be able to prescribe prescriptions to the patient, but the new method would be having permission from both the medical care professional and the pharmacist in order for them to prescribe the medication. Overall, this method is heavily backed by many people saying that this can lower the number of people using opioids and can overall lower the number of people that will be addicted to opioids.

The Opioid Problem

California has one of the highest amounts of opioid users in the United States. The reason why this is can vary greatly depending on the counties in California.

  • Los Angeles County
    • This is the most populous county in California and has dealt with numerous drug-related problems in the past before, but due to certain measures, the amount of opioid-related incidents have decreased significantly.
  • Orange County
    • The number of opioid prescriptions has increased significantly since the past and this has been causing problems in certain areas around the county.
  • San Bernardino County
    • The rural areas of the county have a more significant problem than many of the inner cities. The reason being can be due to the number of people sharing prescriptions.
  • Alameda County
    • The number of opioid-related incidents has significantly decreased and this resulted in much fewer users of opioids within the county.
  • San Joaquin County
    • The number of opioid-related incidents has increased greatly within the county and one of the main reasons is from sharing prescriptions. 
  • Fresno County
    • The county has the highest amount of opioid users within the central valley and has gotten significantly worse since the past five years.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Opioid Affected Locations