4 ms·

I agree that the numbers of the articles are poorly chosen. That said the number of OD per year is increasing sharply in the US [1] Thus article shed some ligh

I agree that the numbers of the articles are poorly chosen. That said the number of OD per year is increasing sharply in the US [1] Thus article shed some lights on why the DEA seems to have more trubble than before keeping in check the painkiller fabricants. For me it shows that it's really hard to prevent collusion between regulators and industries when it's a common practic to get hired at the people you used to watch over. 1: https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/o...

glenra 9y ago
The number of OD per year is almost meaningless without knowing the number of users per year. (Which also had been increasing sharply in the US.) The last time I looked into this it seemed like illegal heroin use was relatively dangerous and legal prescription opiate use was quite safe and remains so - the increase in the raw number of prescription related ODs was entirely caused by the same old tiny OD rate being applied to a larger number of prescriptions. You get big scary numbers by (a) combining deliberate suicides with accidental ODs, (b) combining ODs from illegal use with ODs from legal use, (c) ignoring background trends in usage rate. Properly separate those factors out and it stops seeming likely that too-many-prescriptions is a problem.
- gwenzek 9y ago
  I'm not sure what's you're point. For me the bad thing is that drug addiction is increasing. OD is just a proxy for that, since it's something easier to count that the number of addicts. (b) seems legit to me. If you OD on legal use that means that the drug wasn't give out responsibly or in a safe environment. c) an increasing trend in drug consumption is not something I find reassuring even if it may have a legit explanation like an increase in the number of cancer (because that's also scary) (a) is a more sensible topic but an increase in voluntary OD isn't a sign of an healthy society.

glenra 9y ago

The number of OD per year is almost meaningless without knowing the number of users per year. (Which also had been increasing sharply in the US.) The last time I looked into this it seemed like illegal heroin use was relatively dangerous and legal prescription opiate use was quite safe and remains so - the increase in the raw number of prescription related ODs was entirely caused by the same old tiny OD rate being applied to a larger number of prescriptions. You get big scary numbers by (a) combining deliberate suicides with accidental ODs, (b) combining ODs from illegal use with ODs from legal use, (c) ignoring background trends in usage rate. Properly separate those factors out and it stops seeming likely that too-many-prescriptions is a problem.

gwenzek 9y ago
I'm not sure what's you're point. For me the bad thing is that drug addiction is increasing. OD is just a proxy for that, since it's something easier to count that the number of addicts. (b) seems legit to me. If you OD on legal use that means that the drug wasn't give out responsibly or in a safe environment. c) an increasing trend in drug consumption is not something I find reassuring even if it may have a legit explanation like an increase in the number of cancer (because that's also scary) (a) is a more sensible topic but an increase in voluntary OD isn't a sign of an healthy society.