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Approximately 80 percent of the global opioid supply is consumed in the United States, which represents only 5 percent of the global population "There was abou

• Retric 9y ago
  OTC = over the counter. There was a huge spike in prescription pain medications which has steadly declined over time. While 2017 numbers are not in. 2016 Prescription pain medications are down 6% from 2015 and down 18% from 2012. https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/maps/rxrate-maps.html https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/maps/rxrate-maps.html And again, we are talking less than one prescription per year per person on average. With many of these prescriptions for 2-3 days worth of pain management. Though again, a minority of people get a lot of pain medication.
• chimeracoder 9y ago
  > Approximately 80 percent of the global opioid supply is consumed in the United States, which represents only 5 percent of the global population That article is borderline irresponsible with how it reports that metric. 80% of global prescription opiate medications are filled in the US, but that doesn't mean that 80% of those prescriptions are consumed in the US (or consumed at all). Nor does it include no-prescription opiates, which are generally much easier to obtain in most countries around the world (and also a lot cheaper) than their prescription counterparts.