4 ms·
Like many of these stories, it's a bit shallow - that chart is interesting - but as others have pointed out it's pretty noisy. However, you can line it up agai
by jwilliams 9y ago
Like many of these stories, it's a bit shallow - that chart is interesting - but as others have pointed out it's pretty noisy.
However, you can line it up against national data[1] it's really bucking the trend. You also find that opioid prescriptions are at least stable or declining in Colorado. Again, against the national trend that's significant.
Equally, you see spikes in Heroin deaths - so picture is a lot more complex than that chart.
[1] https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/o...
- heroprotagonist 9y agoI wonder how that heroin stat will compare over a longer term. From what I understand, a common suggestion is that overprescription of opiods leads to abuse. Then removal of the prescription, tolerance gains, or financial considerations push the user to heroin. And once a user is hooked on that, I think introducing marijuana as an alternative is not going to have as much impact. But if reducing number of opiod prescriptions leads to fewer heroin users, I would expect there to be a measurable impact at some point over a longer term, at least in comparison to national trend.