5 ms·

That's an awful analogy. Opioids are a medicine, asbestos are not.

• jonknee 9y ago
  OK, well plenty of medicines have been withdrawn from the market because of safety concerns: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_withdrawn_drugs#Significant_withdrawals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_withdrawn_drugs#Signif...
  • nv-vn 9y ago
    You're still trying to apply this same analogy in a case it doesn't fit. A medicine can have negative effects and still be useful (withdrawn drugs are only withdrawn when their are no longer needed, usually because of a safer alternative). However, if a drug that cured cancer but resulted in birth defects existed, it would not be banned very easily. Putting asbestos in your body will not cure cancer, and so taking them out of the market doesn't leave anyone in a worse position ("dying in agony" in the words of the GGGP). Attacking the supply may work when it is an industrial material, but outlawing opioids completely would be much more catastrophic. Not only would it not work (why does heroin exist? or why did non-alcoholics still purchase alcohol during prohibition?), but it would also cause specific harm to patients who are in need of the medicine.