Looks like a sharp rise in heroine, cocaine & speed deaths too, even if shallower than opioids.
Curious what a longer term chart would look like. This only charts 3 years. Is it normal, having such big annual changes?
Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017
121–130 of 217 posts
Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 2 months worth of oxy for getting wisdom teeth pulled kind of thing I saved mine after wisdom tooth/root canal combo and used them as mood enhancer later. I am not sure I am addicted to them though. I find this theory hard to believe that opioid overdose is an end result of series of missteps starting from wisdom tooth oxy prescription.
Keep in mind that some people are at much higher risk for becoming addicted to opiates. You may have been able to take them recreationally without major issue, but the same behavior could have a much more severe consequence for someone in that at-risk group.
> some people are at much higher risk
Why is that? Something in their genetic makeup? Wonder if its possible to identify these ppl preemptively.
Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
My own preferred hypothesis is that this is the result of despair : https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/04/joblessne... Someone will no doubt reply that US unemployment is falling, and therefore so should the opiates crisis, but it's not a simple matter of economics and statistics, it's a question of what people believe about the world and their future in it. Someone who gets a bad, painful job with no ag…
Manufacturing jobs are booming in the US. The very people that you're implying are hopeless, that specific demographic, have access to blue collar jobs in a way they haven't in nearly a generation. The US hasn't seen this kind of sustained manufacturing job growth since the mid 1990s. The US has drug problems, and has for 50 years, that other first or second tier nations in worse structural condition never picked up.…
>Japan has lost a minimum of 1/3 of its standard of living in 15-20 years. They're not overdosing on opioids like people in the US are. They've suffered far worse than people in the US have.
This seems patently false to me and strikes me as a way to bolster your "Americans are druggies" argument without any real evidence. FYI, GDP per capita in Japan is about the same as it has been for the past 20 years, despite a falling population.
Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What the patient seeks is irrelevant. The only one who decides what prescriptions a patient should take is a doctor. That kind of rubs me the wrong way, but I'm not sure why. I like having the option of overriding the doctor if I disagree.
In the NHS, that isn't possible. You either take the doctor's treatment, or you get no treatment at all. You can go around, asking different doctors, or having a discussion with your doctor, but you will not be prescribed something you don't need. The incentive being, that with a tax payer funded system, money should go to those who actually need it. It is understood here I guess that the doctor is the expert, not yo…
I can totally appreciate this. As an American though, I have gone around my doctor and ordered prescription medications online when they would not prescribe them (ivermectin, anti-parisital, non-controlled substances, almost zero risk to myself if my diagnosis was inaccurate).
Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
Keep in mind that some people are at much higher risk for becoming addicted to opiates. You may have been able to take them recreationally without major issue, but the same behavior could have a much more severe consequence for someone in that at-risk group.
> some people are at much higher risk Why is that? Something in their genetic makeup? Wonder if its possible to identify these ppl preemptively.
Possibly that, but life experiences and environmental factors (stress at work, etc) play a huge role.
Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the NHS, that isn't possible. You either take the doctor's treatment, or you get no treatment at all. You can go around, asking different doctors, or having a discussion with your doctor, but you will not be prescribed something you don't need. The incentive being, that with a tax payer funded system, money should go to those who actually need it. It is understood here I guess that the doctor is the expert, not yo…
I can totally appreciate this. As an American though, I have gone around my doctor and ordered prescription medications online when they would not prescribe them (ivermectin, anti-parisital, non-controlled substances, almost zero risk to myself if my diagnosis was inaccurate).
Slightly related, sometimes I just want a new pair of glasses without the hassle of going to/paying the eye doctor. I can still see 20/20 with my current prescription, but since it's "expired", physical retailers won't sell me glasses nor will they use their refractometer to read off the prescription of my current pair. So I instead go online and order a pair from Zenni using my expired prescription that I wrote down.
Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
At the same time, know that every time a politician gets a bullet point on his re-election flier for "fighting the opioid epidemic" or "keeping our streets clean", there are real people in real pain who get stranded without the medication they need to function. After the birth of my youngest child, my wife spent the immediate recovery period blindsided by pain because new regulations meant the hospital was unwilling…
Floridian here - I was given 1 month morphine prescriptions for 6 months. I believe 1 month is the max. This was this year.
New law went into effect July 1.
Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
The doctors. Anyone who spends the better part of a decade studying medicine can't be ignorant about opioids and addiction, regardless of what the slimy Purdue representative tells them. The only excuse they have for the blatant over prescribing of opioids (2 months worth of oxy for getting wisdom teeth pulled kind of thing) is that if they don't do it, the patient will just go to another doctor. But how can you just…
> What the patient seeks is irrelevant. The only one who decides what prescriptions a patient should take is a doctor. That kind of rubs me the wrong way, but I'm not sure why. I like having the option of overriding the doctor if I disagree.
I understand where you're coming from.
I have a little stack of benzos (valium, xanax, some others) that I use on the odd occasion, despite not being prescribed. Obviously possessing them is illegal. I know that I'm sound enough to know when to use them and when not to, and they've saved me a lot of avoidable pain. I wouldn't go so far as to say they've saved my life, but they've come damn close.
I also use my fair share of recreational drugs, as I've mentioned in previous comments. I know I'm good for them, I practice harm reduction strategies and rave safe. However, I am aware that not everybody is me. There are people who have amphetamine habits, or benzo habits, or {{drug_of_choice}} habits. It's by luck,good planning, and good friends that I don't have a habit and manage to use drugs without causing excessive harm.
That's something that a lot of readers here seem to forget. The average HN reader is very intelligent and usually very capable of looking after themselves (although I am aware there is a fair share of HN readers who've had struggles with addiction). Not everyone is as switched on as the average HN reader though.
Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can totally appreciate this. As an American though, I have gone around my doctor and ordered prescription medications online when they would not prescribe them (ivermectin, anti-parisital, non-controlled substances, almost zero risk to myself if my diagnosis was inaccurate).
Slightly related, sometimes I just want a new pair of glasses without the hassle of going to/paying the eye doctor. I can still see 20/20 with my current prescription, but since it's "expired", physical retailers won't sell me glasses nor will they use their refractometer to read off the prescription of my current pair. So I instead go online and order a pair from Zenni using my expired prescription that I wrote down…
That's an interestingly unique problem to the USA I think.
Here in Australia, I haven't been to an optometrist in 5 or 6 years. I just keep ordering new glasses for $60 a pair online, my vision hasn't changed enough that I feel that I need to go to an optometrist again. The optometrist is legally required to give me my prescription, which I can then use as I want.
I haven't bought glasses in a brick and mortar store for 5 or 6 years (last time I got an eye test), but I'm fairly sure they won't/can't refuse to make me a pair to my specifications. Actually, I did get a pair made in the shop in Vietnam 2 years ago, and they were more than happy to make them (overnight too, I might add), although they did laugh at how blind I was.
Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
The doctors. Anyone who spends the better part of a decade studying medicine can't be ignorant about opioids and addiction, regardless of what the slimy Purdue representative tells them. The only excuse they have for the blatant over prescribing of opioids (2 months worth of oxy for getting wisdom teeth pulled kind of thing) is that if they don't do it, the patient will just go to another doctor. But how can you just…
> 2 months worth of oxy for getting wisdom teeth pulled kind of thing I saved mine after wisdom tooth/root canal combo and used them as mood enhancer later. I am not sure I am addicted to them though. I find this theory hard to believe that opioid overdose is an end result of series of missteps starting from wisdom tooth oxy prescription.
Most of the population drinks alcohol. Most of the population are not alcoholics.
I haven't abused opioids for recreational purposes, but I know people who have saved their prescribed codeine and gotten fucked up on it. They aren't addicted. I also walk to the supermarket every day, past the safe injection centre filled with smackheads. I've seen dead heroin addicts wheeled into the ambulance.
Not everyone is as susceptible to addiction as others, but the more opioids/alcohol/other drugs you take, the more likely you are to get addicted.