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The "war on drugs" has little to do with our opioid epidemic. These are people who were given "medicine" (mostly painkillers) and got hooked.

mattnewton 9y ago
I am mostly with you on that and think this is a separate issue of big pharmacy pushing unsafe drugs, but there probably is some truth to GP's statement as well. The social stigma of addiction treated it as something that happened to morally deficient people, and probably lead to defunding and demphasizing public health approaches to solving it.
- frozenport 9y ago
  In theory, its hard to say addicts don't have treatment options. If you're ensured the same guys will give you methadone, and public clinics exist. If you fall off the grid its much harder, especially because public treatment options which are mostly free, do require tedious screening. In that case its a matter of implementation. The real issue is that many treatments have a poor success rate.
aqme28 9y ago
I disagree. Look at Portugal, which decriminalized opioid use and started viewing it as a treatable medical condition. They went from the highest to one of the lowest rates of opioid use in Europe.
- frozenport 9y ago
  European doctors didn't prescribe the same stuff American doctors prescribed, and unlike the US if you did get something prescribed it was easier to keep the prescription (so you didn't turn to heroin, etc).
- x00x00 9y ago
  Portugal didn't have pharma companies and doctors selling opioids as being safe to regular people. That is what makes the USA unique - it's almost impossible to be prescribed strong opiates anywhere else in the world, let alone to be told that they're safe.
  - koolba 9y ago
    I'm pretty sure we're the only country that has commercials for "Opioid Induced Constipation" drugs as well. You know something is prevalent when the drugs to treat its side effects are worthy of prime time advertising.
    - pacificmint 9y ago
      > I'm pretty sure we're the only country that has commercials for "Opioid Induced Constipation" drugs as well. Well, we're one of only two countries in the world that allow direct to consumer advertising for drugs at all, so your statement is probably true. (New Zealand is the other one for those curious, with Canada having some limited things they allow).
      - ryall 9y ago
        As a kiwi myself, I'm genuinely curious about what drugs are advertised in NZ. I can't recall any such advertisements, apart from maybe flu pills that contain pseudo-ephedrine?
        shavingspiders 9y ago
        We don't have many - panadol & ibuprofen combos, viagra generics, branded asthma drugs. Generally they purchase ad spots outside of prime time (and likely with more regularity on channels like One & Prime, where there's a slightly older audience.
    - rconti 9y ago
      Or commercials for pharmaceuticals at all.
    - derefr 9y ago
      My hypothesis there would be, those people are prequalified—the fact that they're consuming opioids means that they 1. have money and 2. are willing to spend that money on drugs to fix their suffering. Selling them an add-on drug that relieves the suffering from the first drug seems like "easy money."
- pouta 9y ago
  One of the few things that makes me proud of my country.
xzel 9y ago
I disagree. If we want to get into numbers sure there is some percentage who first had a prescription. I'm also sure there are plenty of people who started using when they were flowing freely and cheaply as a recreational drug. I know where I grew up, plenty of people were using without having it prescribed. It was incredibly easy to get bulk amounts across the country, for example Florida: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/us/01drugs.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/us/01drugs.html What the other poster is talking about is the reaction to someone being hooked, looking the other way and/or not treating it as a mental health issue and putting them in rehab instead of jail. Then, imo, if you really want to get into it, destabilization in Mexico has created the actual heroin epidemic we see now, as the pill mills and doctors involved have had their operations closed.
- Retric 9y ago
  The numbers suggest the majority started with a prescription. The number of people given these prescriptions was staggering around 4 times as many people got hooked (2.1 million) than are using Heroin (0.4 million). https://www.drugabuse.gov/about-nida/legislative-activities/testimony-to-congress/2016/americas-addiction-to-opioids-heroin-prescription-drug-abuse https://www.drugabuse.gov/about-nida/legislative-activities/... "By 2002, death certificates listed opioid analgesic poisoning as a cause of death more commonly than heroin or cocaine."
skookumchuck 9y ago
I know people who died of opioid overdoses, and they were never prescribed it. If you take away the medical pills, they just go get heroin and OD on that.
- base698 9y ago
  I know people who died of opioid overdoses, and they were always prescribed it. Also if you read "Dreamland" 80% of heroin addicts started addiction with prescribed drugs.
refurb 9y ago
Drug companies don't write scripts. That falls entirely on doctors.
InclinedPlane 9y ago
No. The war on drugs means that when people "fall out" of civilized society due to opioid addiction they are forced to turn to street drugs. Drugs of questionable composition and strength, making dosing dangerous. The result is 100 deaths from opioid overdoses every. Single. Day. If those people were on methadone instead, for example, hundreds of thousands of people who are now dead would still be alive.

mattnewton 9y ago

I am mostly with you on that and think this is a separate issue of big pharmacy pushing unsafe drugs, but there probably is some truth to GP's statement as well. The social stigma of addiction treated it as something that happened to morally deficient people, and probably lead to defunding and demphasizing public health approaches to solving it.

frozenport 9y ago
In theory, its hard to say addicts don't have treatment options. If you're ensured the same guys will give you methadone, and public clinics exist. If you fall off the grid its much harder, especially because public treatment options which are mostly free, do require tedious screening. In that case its a matter of implementation. The real issue is that many treatments have a poor success rate.

aqme28 9y ago

I disagree. Look at Portugal, which decriminalized opioid use and started viewing it as a treatable medical condition. They went from the highest to one of the lowest rates of opioid use in Europe.

frozenport 9y ago
European doctors didn't prescribe the same stuff American doctors prescribed, and unlike the US if you did get something prescribed it was easier to keep the prescription (so you didn't turn to heroin, etc).
x00x00 9y ago
Portugal didn't have pharma companies and doctors selling opioids as being safe to regular people. That is what makes the USA unique - it's almost impossible to be prescribed strong opiates anywhere else in the world, let alone to be told that they're safe.
- koolba 9y ago
  I'm pretty sure we're the only country that has commercials for "Opioid Induced Constipation" drugs as well. You know something is prevalent when the drugs to treat its side effects are worthy of prime time advertising.
  - pacificmint 9y ago
    > I'm pretty sure we're the only country that has commercials for "Opioid Induced Constipation" drugs as well. Well, we're one of only two countries in the world that allow direct to consumer advertising for drugs at all, so your statement is probably true. (New Zealand is the other one for those curious, with Canada having some limited things they allow).
    - ryall 9y ago
      As a kiwi myself, I'm genuinely curious about what drugs are advertised in NZ. I can't recall any such advertisements, apart from maybe flu pills that contain pseudo-ephedrine?
      - shavingspiders 9y ago
        We don't have many - panadol & ibuprofen combos, viagra generics, branded asthma drugs. Generally they purchase ad spots outside of prime time (and likely with more regularity on channels like One & Prime, where there's a slightly older audience.
  - rconti 9y ago
    Or commercials for pharmaceuticals at all.
  - derefr 9y ago
    My hypothesis there would be, those people are prequalified—the fact that they're consuming opioids means that they 1. have money and 2. are willing to spend that money on drugs to fix their suffering. Selling them an add-on drug that relieves the suffering from the first drug seems like "easy money."
pouta 9y ago
One of the few things that makes me proud of my country.

xzel 9y ago

I disagree. If we want to get into numbers sure there is some percentage who first had a prescription. I'm also sure there are plenty of people who started using when they were flowing freely and cheaply as a recreational drug. I know where I grew up, plenty of people were using without having it prescribed. It was incredibly easy to get bulk amounts across the country, for example Florida: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/us/01drugs.html http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/us/01drugs.html What the other poster is talking about is the reaction to someone being hooked, looking the other way and/or not treating it as a mental health issue and putting them in rehab instead of jail. Then, imo, if you really want to get into it, destabilization in Mexico has created the actual heroin epidemic we see now, as the pill mills and doctors involved have had their operations closed.

Retric 9y ago
The numbers suggest the majority started with a prescription. The number of people given these prescriptions was staggering around 4 times as many people got hooked (2.1 million) than are using Heroin (0.4 million). https://www.drugabuse.gov/about-nida/legislative-activities/testimony-to-congress/2016/americas-addiction-to-opioids-heroin-prescription-drug-abuse https://www.drugabuse.gov/about-nida/legislative-activities/... "By 2002, death certificates listed opioid analgesic poisoning as a cause of death more commonly than heroin or cocaine."

skookumchuck 9y ago

I know people who died of opioid overdoses, and they were never prescribed it. If you take away the medical pills, they just go get heroin and OD on that.

base698 9y ago
I know people who died of opioid overdoses, and they were always prescribed it. Also if you read "Dreamland" 80% of heroin addicts started addiction with prescribed drugs.

refurb 9y ago

Drug companies don't write scripts. That falls entirely on doctors.

InclinedPlane 9y ago

No. The war on drugs means that when people "fall out" of civilized society due to opioid addiction they are forced to turn to street drugs. Drugs of questionable composition and strength, making dosing dangerous. The result is 100 deaths from opioid overdoses every. Single. Day. If those people were on methadone instead, for example, hundreds of thousands of people who are now dead would still be alive.