Topic:
Country: Japan
Delegate Name: Vivienne Grzelak
In Japan, the opioid crisis hasn’t hit as hard as it has in many other countries. One of the biggest players in the opioid crisis, OxyContin, was only legalized in 2003 and only sold to those with cancer-related pain. As a result, the opioid epidemic has not hit Japan as hard as it has in many other nations. Only 0.6% of male deaths in japan are opioid-related compared to the United States 16.97% of male deaths are related to opioids. The number of opioid-related deaths is even lower for women, at only 0.37%.
Japan has never really had a massive problem with opioids, as they are a relatively new problem for the nation. Japan is still rather strict about its opioid distribution. The pain reliever, OxyContin, is still rather hard to get, with only a few doctors in the entire country being able to prescribe it. The drug is also only available to those who are in the end stages of cancer or in extreme pain.
The way Japan deals with its opioid problems is by making sure the situations concerning opioids are controlled. This is by taking major precautions and making sure a few extremely well-educated individuals are able to make prescriptions for opioids. In larger countries, the main problem with opioids is that they are far too easy to access. If other countries made an effort to make opioids less accessible and only have specialty doctors be able to prescribe them, then opioid addiction and deaths would go down at a rapid rate.
