Our topic for our civil issues blog is drug abuse. Currently, there is a large issue with drug abuse all over the United States, but especially in Pennsylvania. We thought the stakeholders were drug companies, the people policing the drug abusers, victims of drug abuse, and the people affected by them, such as friends and family members. Each group member chose one drug to focus on and I chose codeine.

The Drug Enforcement Administration classifies codeine as a schedule II/IIN controlled substance. This means codeine is a drug that has a chance of being depended on or abused. The ‘schedule’ is determined by if the drug is used in the medical field for treatment in the U.S., their potential to be abused by patients, and how likely it is that a patient will create a dependence on the drug. The other names for codeine are morphine methyl ester and methyl morphine. This chart also brought to my attention that codeine is included in a few other drugs. A codeine combination with product 90 mg/du, otherwise known as Tylenol or Empirin, is a higher class of drug than straight codeine. There are also Codeine preparations, which are usually 200mg/100ml, or cough syrup. Cough syrup is a class five drug and is commonly used by rappers to make lean, but also used by normal people. Songs such as “Codeine Dreaming” by Kodak Black glorify the use of cough syrup to make lean.

Codeine is a narcotic opioid. It is a drug originally derived from the opium plant but can be man-made. Codeine is similar to but less powerful than, morphine. It was made in France in 1830 to help take the place of raw opium in the medical field when used as a cough remedy. It acts on the central nervous system. Because it is a narcotic, it gives users relief from pain, allows them to sleep, and creates dependence.  Codeine is considered a gateway drug to opioids and sometimes morphine and heroin.

The highest concentrations of codeine are found on the black market, but there are over-the-counter medications like Robitussin, Maxiflu CD, Maxiflu CDX, and Tylenol with Codeine that can still be abused.

If someone is in the possession of codeine without a prescription or more than their prescribed amount can result in being arrested, having your driver’s license suspended, criminal prosecution, drug rehabilitation programs, or incarceration. It could even end with fiscal fines or other legal repercussions. In Pennsylvania the U.S. Controlled Substances Act, in conjunction with the Commonwealth’s Act, allows offenders to be charged with federal and state drug crimes. This means if someone is caught with opioids without a prescription they could be charged with federal and state crimes. This can happen because opioids are federally controlled, so the charges coincide with the federal and state laws. Although, if the amount is small enough and it is the first prosecutors will bypass the federal charges and only charge the offender with state crimes.

In Pennsylvania, if someone is caught with 2 to 10 grams of opioids, they can face one to two years in prison, a $5,000 fine, and a loss of the right to carry a firearm. If the offender has any priors and they have 2 to 10 grams on them they can spend 3 years in prison, and face a $10,000 fine. If someone gets caught for the first time with 10 to 100 grams of opioids, they can face 3 years in prison, a $15,000 fine, and lose the right to carry a firearm. If they have any prior offenses, they could be put in prison for 5 years and have to pay a $30,000 fine. Finally, if someone is caught for the first time with 100 or more grams of opioids, they could face 5 years in prison, a $25,000 fine, and lose the right to carry a firearm. If they have any priors and are caught carrying 100 or more grams they will face 7 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.

It has been proven that longer prison sentences do not reduce crime, then making these charges seem like a waste of time without rehabilitation programs. When the offenders that distribute go to jail they may seem like they have learned from their crimes, but once they are put back into the same environment as before and have no other options they get caught up in the same jobs as before. The junkies that go to jail usually find a way to get their drugs on the inside, prohibiting their sobriety that prison was supposed to give them.

In Pennsylvania, there is a worse opioid crisis than in the rest of the nation. PA has a rate of 18.5 related opioid deaths per 100,000 people, but the United States has a rate of 13.3 deaths per 100,000 people. In about 18 months, from January 2018 to June 2019, there were about 13,500 opioid overdose related emergency room visits in Pennsylvania. That means almost 800 died each month from opioid overdoses in Pennsylvania in that time period. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists PA as the third highest in drug-related overdose deaths. That leaves us behind only West Virginia and Ohio.

To help combat this drug epidemic the state has a drug monitoring program. It gets information about prescriptions and makes sure patients are monitored. Also, the Pennsylvania Department of Health has a program that allows patients to state they don’t want opioids for their medical records. This way, even if they aren’t conscious, their medical records state they do not want opioids, and then none are put in their bloodstream. In Philadelphia, the education on opioids, like codeine, is rising. This is helping to ensure that people know the risks of being involved with opioids and narcotics. This has also increased Narcan use, the drug that reverses most overdoses. This is good because fewer people are dying from using these types of drugs.

Written by Alexandra Strunk