Turns out doctors have better opioid options today but not all of them take advantage of such an option. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019

Turns out doctors have better opioid options today but not all of them take advantage of such an option. https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/05/how-much-did-physicians-drive-the-opioid-crisis.html https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/05/ho... >In August of 2010, Purdue Pharma replaced old OxyContin with a new, anti-abuse version of OxyContin. The new version was just as good at reducing pain as the old but it was more difficult to turn it into an injectable to produce a high. If physicians are altruists who balance treating their patient’s pain against their fear of patient addiction and downstream abuse then they should increase their prescriptions of new Oxy. From the point of view of health, the new Oxy is simply a better drug and with less abuse to worry about altruistic physicians should be more willing on the margin to prescribe Oxy to reduce pain. So what happened? Prescriptions for Oxy fell immediately and dramatically when the better version was released.