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How much did overdose deaths actually increase during COVID? My first inclination is it's most likely to be the effects of curtailing the firehose of opiate pai
by rtkwe 2y ago
How much did overdose deaths actually increase during COVID? My first inclination is it's most likely to be the effects of curtailing the firehose of opiate pain medication prescription that started a few years earlier. It makes sense that that would have a long tail effect as the number of new addicts being created was decreased.
- Aurornis 2y agoThe clampdown on opioid prescribing started long before COVID.
- rtkwe 2y agoThat's my point, the effects of that on overdose deaths would take a while to happen. it's not like everyone who gets prescribed opioids immediately gets hooked and ODs and even after they're cut off they don't immediately go and OD on heroin or other illegally sourced opioids. There's a built in time lag between the reduction in prescriptions and the OD deaths they caused, measured in years in a lot of cases.