09/19/2025
PROCLAMATION
A proclamation supporting the goals of ending opioid abuse and misuse, advancing utilization and accessibility of drug-free chiropractic care, and designating September 2025 as Drug-Free Pain Management Awareness Month.
Whereas, prescription opioid use and abuse leading to addiction and catastrophic outcomes remains a national crisis;
Whereas the leading cause of injury death in the United States is drug overdose, and a majority of the deaths from drug overdose deaths involved an opioid;
Whereas approximately 125 million opioid prescriptions were dispensed to American patients in 2024, which translates to 1/3 of the U.S. population receiving a prescription opioid;
Whereas nearly 8.6 million Americans 12 years and older reported misusing prescription opioids in the past year;
Whereas more than two-thirds of those who reported misusing prescription opioids reported misusing to relieve physical pain;
Whereas from 1999 to 2022, nearly 310,000 Americans have lost their lives to overdoses involving prescription opioids;
Whereas the costs for opioid use disorder and fatal opioid overdose are estimated to be over $1 trillion, including the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement;
Whereas prescription opioids are often recommended for low back, neck and musculoskeletal pain management;
Whereas over 50 million suffer with chronic pain and an estimated 80 percent of all Americans will experience some form of back pain during their lifetime
Whereas doctors of chiropractic (DCs) are educated and trained to effectively address spinal and neuromusculoskeletal pain with non-surgical, non-drug management;
Whereas numerous published studies, including The Lancet (June 2023), document opioids should not be recommended for acute low back or neck pain;
Whereas the Bulletin of the World Health Organization (WHO) published recommendations to manage low back pain initially with non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as spinal manipulation (chiropractic adjustments), while avoiding opioids, spinal injections and surgery;
Whereas a recent study in SPINE concludes spinal manipulation, otherwise known as a chiropractic adjustment, to provide safer benefits than pharmacological or invasive interventions;
Now, therefore, be it resolved, that September 2025 be declared Drug-Free Pain Management Awareness Month, to raise public awareness that chiropractic care is a primary first-line, non-pharmacologic care approach to safely and effectively relieve acute, subacute and chronic neuromusculoskeletal pain.