I follow the reasoning, it just strikes me as facile. Surely not every town with a statistically-outlying amount of opiod drug purchases is full of addicts. Som

I follow the reasoning, it just strikes me as facile. Surely not every town with a statistically-outlying amount of opiod drug purchases is full of addicts. Some towns have hospitals that are not part of the town's population. Or clinics. Or pain centers. You're mixing up a bunch of stats and claiming a conspiracy. Yes, in general there's something amiss, no doubt. But in general people are married with 2.3 kids. Generalities don't public policy make. If we're all going to go banging on the drug companies, and I'm fine with that, by the way, then let's talk about lobbying, kickbacks for doctors, marketing, and so forth. They're doing actual direct things that may be making the problem worse. Failure to follow up on anomalies like this isn't one of them. What would you have them do? Create a report, investigate each problem? Will you deny pain drugs to people who need them because other people in their town are using a pill mill? There's no remedy here that makes any sense. What it feels to me like is an easy fishing expedition where you can put together some reports, make a few statements, bring in Big Pharma for a photo op. Maybe get some donations for the next election. It doesn't feel like any kind of process aimed at either discovering or dealing with causality. It's crap. Worse still, you play these stupid games, you end up having discussions like we did with the cigarette companies. Most people who smoke do not get cancer. That's a true stat -- they usually die from heart disease or other causes before they live that long. Stats are fun. You can do all kinds of things with them, just about anything. (Insert long discussion here about the problems encountered when stats are used) Sorry. I didn't mean to pick on you. Like I said, the article itself bugged me. We have a serious problem and we need to take serious action to help people. I think because it's such a serious problem, people tend to overreact in public discussion. A bit of hyperbole is fine. Personal attacks are not. Hopefully I didn't do that.