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I'm not talking about alternative treatments. If prescriptions are not necessary, anyone can buy opiates without understanding the risks of addiction. Anyone ca

I'm not talking about alternative treatments. If prescriptions are not necessary, anyone can buy opiates without understanding the risks of addiction. Anyone can open a doctor's office, charge half as much as a real doctor, and recommend whatever drugs they feel like. Anyone can buy some heart medication they saw on TV because they've been having chest pains. Doctors absolutely know more about your body than you do. Obviously they don't know everything, and patients should be active and involved, but that doesn't mean you can cut out the doctor because you read a few papers. Letting drug companies sell anything to anybody would be immensely damaging to society.

darkerside 10y ago
I agree doctors know a lot, but they are human. Most specialize in a narrow subset, and that is the lens through which they will treat you. That's not always a bad thing, but I will respectfully disagree and say that I know more about my own body than a doctor I'm meeting for the first time (i.e. most specialists). Legalization of drugs, including opiates, has been successful (or at least not disastrous) in many societies. What makes you think it would be a disaster here? Also, it's a straw man to argue that random people would be opening up doctor's offices. I'm not advocating that we remove the MD from anybody's name.
- burkaman 10y ago
  Legalization of drugs is "successful" in that it's a lot better than jailing people, but addiction is still a huge problem for society. If someone really wants to get high, there's not much we can do to stop them, and that's an acceptable consequence of drug legalization. But what we can stop is someone in a lot of pain who buys way too much Oxycodone and gets addicted because they didn't understand the risks. Right now, they'd have to go see a doctor first, who could prescribe an appropriate amount and/or recommend less dangerous treatment options. When I talk about unlicensed doctor's offices, I don't mean someone posing as an MD, I mean a well-meaning individual opening a cheap clinic and offering medical advice for non-emergency issues. Or maybe more likely, WebMD adding links to order drugs on their results pages. Why go to the doctor if you can just look up your symptoms in 5 minutes and have pills arrive at your door the next day?
  - stagbeetle 10y ago
    > but addiction is still a huge problem for society. If someone really wants to get high, there's not much we can do to stop them, and that's an acceptable consequence of drug legalization. But what we can stop is someone in a lot of pain who buys way too much Oxycodone and gets addicted because they didn't understand the risks. But what part of the pain management patients actively abuse their meds. It's a real issue, but is it a commonplace issue where we absolutely have to devout resources to solving it?
    - burkaman 10y ago
      Yes, there's a reason it's called an epidemic: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/Factsheet-opioids-061516.pdf https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/Factsheet-opioids-06... Imagine the numbers if patients didn't need a prescription and didn't need to talk to a doctor about safe usage.
      - darkerside 10y ago
        Doctors over prescribing this is exactly the problem.
  - darkerside 10y ago
    I agree painkillers like oxycodone are a huge problem, but ironically, this is exactly because doctors are over prescribing them. If people had access to options like medical marijuana, I think we'd actually see less prescription drug abuse. And why not allow the OTC treatments and clinics you describe? They may not (probably should not) be covered by medical insurance, but I see no reason not to allow someone to open up a medical advice clinic of their own volition. Is that even illegal today?
vonmoltke 10y ago
> Anyone can open a doctor's office, charge half as much as a real doctor, and recommend whatever drugs they feel like. Yeah, medical licensing does nothing to prevent that.
- burkaman 10y ago
  Yes, but prescriptions do. Anyone can "recommend" vicodin right now, but it's hard to get some without a prescription from a real licensed doctor.

darkerside 10y ago

I agree doctors know a lot, but they are human. Most specialize in a narrow subset, and that is the lens through which they will treat you. That's not always a bad thing, but I will respectfully disagree and say that I know more about my own body than a doctor I'm meeting for the first time (i.e. most specialists). Legalization of drugs, including opiates, has been successful (or at least not disastrous) in many societies. What makes you think it would be a disaster here? Also, it's a straw man to argue that random people would be opening up doctor's offices. I'm not advocating that we remove the MD from anybody's name.

burkaman 10y ago
Legalization of drugs is "successful" in that it's a lot better than jailing people, but addiction is still a huge problem for society. If someone really wants to get high, there's not much we can do to stop them, and that's an acceptable consequence of drug legalization. But what we can stop is someone in a lot of pain who buys way too much Oxycodone and gets addicted because they didn't understand the risks. Right now, they'd have to go see a doctor first, who could prescribe an appropriate amount and/or recommend less dangerous treatment options. When I talk about unlicensed doctor's offices, I don't mean someone posing as an MD, I mean a well-meaning individual opening a cheap clinic and offering medical advice for non-emergency issues. Or maybe more likely, WebMD adding links to order drugs on their results pages. Why go to the doctor if you can just look up your symptoms in 5 minutes and have pills arrive at your door the next day?
- stagbeetle 10y ago
  > but addiction is still a huge problem for society. If someone really wants to get high, there's not much we can do to stop them, and that's an acceptable consequence of drug legalization. But what we can stop is someone in a lot of pain who buys way too much Oxycodone and gets addicted because they didn't understand the risks. But what part of the pain management patients actively abuse their meds. It's a real issue, but is it a commonplace issue where we absolutely have to devout resources to solving it?
  - burkaman 10y ago
    Yes, there's a reason it's called an epidemic: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/Factsheet-opioids-061516.pdf https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/Factsheet-opioids-06... Imagine the numbers if patients didn't need a prescription and didn't need to talk to a doctor about safe usage.
    - darkerside 10y ago
      Doctors over prescribing this is exactly the problem.
- darkerside 10y ago
  I agree painkillers like oxycodone are a huge problem, but ironically, this is exactly because doctors are over prescribing them. If people had access to options like medical marijuana, I think we'd actually see less prescription drug abuse. And why not allow the OTC treatments and clinics you describe? They may not (probably should not) be covered by medical insurance, but I see no reason not to allow someone to open up a medical advice clinic of their own volition. Is that even illegal today?

vonmoltke 10y ago

> Anyone can open a doctor's office, charge half as much as a real doctor, and recommend whatever drugs they feel like. Yeah, medical licensing does nothing to prevent that.

burkaman 10y ago
Yes, but prescriptions do. Anyone can "recommend" vicodin right now, but it's hard to get some without a prescription from a real licensed doctor.