3 ms·
The thing that I don't get about this opioid crisis is I keep hearing about it but I have never really seen the corresponding human misery being captured in pho
by myaso 9y ago
The thing that I don't get about this opioid crisis is I keep hearing about it but I have never really seen the corresponding human misery being captured in photography or film -- I see and hear words but I can't gauge the magnitude of the problem. Is this mainly prescription opiates? That's an issue with with the ethics of medical professionals more than anything else -- if you have a low threshold to prescribe this shit what the hell bdo you expect?
Update: found a nice heat map from NY Times; still the issue is there are no absolute numbers or the table that shows how the color gradient in the heat map progresses -- I get tall tales of year over year percentage increases but no absolute numbers to reference against. Is it really that hard to make a decent chart/graphic for this for a org like NYT?
- majormajor 9y agohttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/faces-of-an-epidemic https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/faces-of-an-ep... will give you some human form Prescription opiates that lead to street drugs like heroin or illicitly-sourced ones after the prescription runs out, is my understanding. I don't know how the numbers break down in terms of initial exposure - how many bored desparate people were seeking a release, how many people got injured and then got hooked, etc...? But when we end up talking about drugs designed for 2,000lb elephants, it doesn't seem purely a problem of doctors/pharmacists, people are getting it from some unofficial sources.
- myaso 9y agoThanks for the link. Found some data: https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/o... -- and also found this gem http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/drug-use/by-country/ http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/drug-use/b... This looks more like a symptom unique to specific countries, when you consider accuracy of data and the penalty for trafficking by jurisdictions.
- twooclock 9y agoRead also https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain/amp https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-tha... for some context. In my opinion it shows how 'marketing' in pharma is a recepie for a disaster.
- curun1r 9y agoIf you've got Netflix, check out "Dope." Episode 2 is most applicable to the opioid crisis, but the other episodes are all worth a watch too.