The Opioid Epidemic, discussed. Committee 2.

This issue is being discussed on OPG 5 by a collection of countries, such as the UK which has called for a more “intellectual approach” to the issue. The delegate of France noted that “millions are to become dependent and addicted” if this problem isn’t dealt with promptly. The France delegation gave a very detailed and informed speech were it explained how in the “80s drug distribution in the country was very lax”, but that by the mid 90s, after seeing the consequences of this attitude the country changed policy and managed to solve its Opioid and drug problem.

“In the mid 90s the attitude in the country started changing.”

– Delegate of France

Drugs that fight addiction, such as methadone, can be very helpful into solving the problem of addiction. The delegate even offered the country’s expertise and experience to assist countries that are being ravaged by this problem, such as the United States of America. The US was mentioned in almost all of the speeches and it responded by saying that the opioid epidemic is causing a horrific catastrophe in the country. Last year alone the death toll reached 69.000 people, and the crisis has already cost billions of dollars. The delegate assured the other countries that it is trying to fight the crisis by spending millions of dollars on healthcare, and that it will cooperate with other countries to solve this issue globally.

Countries like Saudi Arabia and Argentina pointed to opium producers and drug dealers as the source of this problem , and suggested that nations should crackdown on these people to put an end to all this.

The delegate of Laos proposed that the governments should subsidise opium producers and pharmaceutical companies into not selling opioids. The delegate of Denmark responded by saying that there is “a correlation between opioid usage and cancer research”, but didn’t leave it clear if the epidemic is an affordable price to pay or not.

Because there was a motion on the Economic Impacts of Opioids, Russia pointed out on how the age group that is most affected is the 15 to 25 one. Because this is the age group that is about to enter the work force this can “heavily affect the country’s GDP.”

The delegate of Mexico told the conference how opioids affect the Mexican economy, has drug cartels control most of the opioid problem, not the hospitals and the healthcare system.