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It's a bad idea. Opioids are incredibly addictive. At one point something like 25% of the male population of China 'regularly consumed' opium, i.e. they were a
by impossiblefork 3y ago
It's a bad idea.
Opioids are incredibly addictive. At one point something like 25% of the male population of China 'regularly consumed' opium, i.e. they were addicted to it, and China has always been a country with at least a certain sense of order.
Opium is also special, even among other dangerous drugs. It takes over your brain's reward system and makes things you previously regarded as pleasurable as uninteresting compared to opium. It permanently destroys people.
Making it common as beer is a terrible idea. Rather I think it's likely that the opium sellers and everyone associated with the distribution and marketing of opioids need to be dealt with quite brutally.
Don't think of things like carfentanil as a drugs. Think of them as chemical weapons.
- swayvil 3y agoConsider that 10% of the population is on antidepressants. And the world hasn't blown up. Given the choice between antidepressants and opioids, I'll take opioids.
- TylerE 3y agoHonestly I think much of the harm has been from overreaction to the first wave. People who could have been stable on a dose of OxyContin or some other moderate strength opioid, and instead are getting whatever on the street.
- Clubber 3y agoWhen people take prescription opioids, the dose is right there on the pill. People are going to take them anyway, wouldn't you prefer they know what they are taking? That will never happen in the US because we consider it a moral failing, but it's obvious that taking a drug with a dosage stamped on it is better than taking something mixed in a basement somewhere. Let's take the moral failure out of it. Imagine if Tylenol was random dosages that ranged from fake to a dosage that would induce total liver failure. That would be absurd.
- impossiblefork 3y agoOpioids are almost certainly worse than antidepressants, and I don't see why you appear to believe that they are alternatives to each other. Any entity participating in an endeavour which as part of its activities distributes, markets or which through propaganda or political action defends the use of opioids must be destroyed, because opioids are a chemical weapon. They aren't 'illegal drugs'. They're a means to destroy somebody, and that is all they are.
- swayvil 3y agoHow are opioids worse than antidepressants ?
- impossiblefork 3y agoDo antidepressants hijack people's reward systems so that they no longer enjoy things other than antidepressants?
- swayvil 3y agoAnd antidepressants are known to induce psychosis. But just answer the question plainly. I really want to know.
- chasil 3y agoI am not greatly familiar with the dangers of antidepressants. I do know that abruptly lowering the dose for some can cause thoughts of suicide. Some have side effects of sexual dysfunction. Some cause weight gain. That's about the limit of my knowledge. What I know about the opioid class of drugs is that tolerance builds so the dosages commonly increase, too much stops the heart, and trying to stop causes violent withdrawal. To me, opioids sound far more dangerous, enough to get its very own disorder. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_use_disorder https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_use_disorder
- FireBeyond 3y ago> too much stops the heart At the risk of pedantry, opioids don't work directly on heart function. Too much opioids in the system cause respiratory depression. That can go on to become respiratory arrest, which can then cause cardiac arrest. Same end result, but the point is, opioid overdose is primarily a respiratory concern. In my county some EMS do not even carry Narcan (which is a debate in itself) but are directed to focus on positive pressure ventilation and transport to ER or, if carried, to gently titrate Narcan such that the person becomes gradually more alert at the ER and may be more open to addiction help, rather than the "heroic dose" that you get with IN (intra-nasal) Narcan.