While I agree this needs to be treated as a public health issue (rather than treating users as criminals) I think pinning the blame on doctors is myopic. One o

While I agree this needs to be treated as a public health issue (rather than treating users as criminals) I think pinning the blame on doctors is myopic. One of the biggest factors that leads people to a life of opiate abuse is when people can't envision a future for themselves. You see it throughout the rust belt- people who worked in manufacturing were left without a job, in a town without prospects, and disability rates skyrocket. Along with the disability wave comes opiate abuse and alcoholism. Doctors could stop prescribing opiates entirely, and the problem will continue. Epidemics like this are the result of a confluence of factors. If increasing amounts of young women are feeling hopeless about the future, if women (and men) are left without a plan for how they want to live, they're going to look to take their minds off it whatever way they can, and drug abuse is a simple pathological way to do it.