OPINION PIECE –
Dec. 31, 2023 – I think is just as important to point out is what was NOT found in Perry’s system: opioids such as heroin, oxycodone and the highly potent, synthetic fentanyl … While the exact reason for Perry’s use of buprenorphine is not known, we know that the medication … So, why am I discussing buprenorphine? The primary reason is that bupe is a lifesaving medication that is still mostly unknown, both among the public and medical professionals. In fact, I didn’t learn about bupe until years after my formal medical training when I attained addiction medicine board certification upon discovering in 2013 that the leading cause of death among my patients—Boston’s homeless population—was drug overdose.
Because so few people know about bupe, it is both misunderstood and grossly underutilized. We are very much in the midst of a public health crisis. Opioid-related overdose deaths, primarily driven by illicit fentanyl, surged during the COVID pandemic, nearly doubling from 42,000 to 80,000 from 2016 to 2021. In 2022, nearly 110,000people in the United States died from an overdose, mostly driven by the synthetic opioid, fentanyl. The death toll does not include the multiple collateral consequences including job loss, hospital stays, sick days and criminal justice costs.
