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Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017

nytimes.com

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Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017

#151

Post by stevecalifornia »

Alex3917 wrote: post #150
toomanybeersies wrote: post #18

As a comparison, the road toll in the USA is 33,000 per year. Firearms kill about the same number (including 20,000 suicides). 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks. 72,000 overdose deaths is just a staggeringly large number.

> 72,000 overdose deaths is just a staggeringly large number. It's still only a drop in the bucket compared to overall drug-related deaths though. Tobacco-related deaths alone account for 500k deaths annually, and that's not even counting deaths related to third-hand smoke.

Third-hand smoke? Please, tell me more.

Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017

#152

Post by dragonwriter »

stevecalifornia wrote: post #151
Alex3917 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 72,000 overdose deaths is just a staggeringly large number. It's still only a drop in the bucket compared to overall drug-related deaths though. Tobacco-related deaths alone account for 500k deaths annually, and that's not even counting deaths related to third-hand smoke.

Third-hand smoke? Please, tell me more.

“Thirdhand smoke is residual nicotine and other chemicals left on indoor surfaces by tobacco smoke. People are exposed to these chemicals by touching contaminated surfaces or breathing in the off-gassing from these surfaces. This residue is thought to react with common indoor pollutants to create a toxic mix including cancer causing compounds, posing a potential health hazard to nonsmokers — especially children.”

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/ex...

Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017

#153

Post by naccato »

The sad truth is, the U.S. is a country that emphasizes punishment over rehabilitation, and we've brought this upon ourselves by isolating people and banning access to substances that they've become dependent on. The solution here is not complex: give addicts safe access to the substances they're addicted to and resources for improving their situation. It's disheartening, to say the least, that one of the main strategies for dealing with this is apparently "reducing medical prescriptions of opioids". People are in pain -- they need to be helped.

I highly recommend the book Chasing the Scream, for anyone who's looking for a primer on the War on Drugs. It traces the hysteria around drug use back to the 1930s, when race panic was used to push forward prohibition in the face of mounting evidence against that strategy.

Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017

#154

Post by ghayes »

Alex3917 wrote: post #150
toomanybeersies wrote: post #18

As a comparison, the road toll in the USA is 33,000 per year. Firearms kill about the same number (including 20,000 suicides). 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks. 72,000 overdose deaths is just a staggeringly large number.

> 72,000 overdose deaths is just a staggeringly large number. It's still only a drop in the bucket compared to overall drug-related deaths though. Tobacco-related deaths alone account for 500k deaths annually, and that's not even counting deaths related to third-hand smoke.

I figured that number was global, not US-only. Yes, that is a staggeringly high number.

Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017

#155

Post by aaavl2821 »

announcerman wrote: post #7

The amount of responsibility laundering that's happening is staggering. Is it the fault of the doctors for prescribing strong painkillers or the responsibility of lobbyists for keeping the status quo as it is. Or is it the responsibility of patients to not seek strong opiates for the smallest aches? On whom falls the blame for this?

Some people have some back pain / other pain and, if they're out of a job (commonly factory jobs) they go on disability (almost as a form of welfare), and will often get meds for their pain (this is the fault of doctors, pharma companies, generally medical culture emphasizing quick fix Rx vs other methods of dealing with pain).

Obviously these drugs are addictive, and if you're already in a bad place bc you went from a great stable job in your 30s to pseudo-welfare in your 50s, you're more vulnerable to addiction

Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017

#156

Post by CydeWeys »

village-idiot wrote: post #131
toomanybeersies wrote: post #18

As a comparison, the road toll in the USA is 33,000 per year. Firearms kill about the same number (including 20,000 suicides). 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks. 72,000 overdose deaths is just a staggeringly large number.

Overdosed actually overtook vehicle deaths before most public health officials realized that something horribly wrong was going on. That we still haven’t done much about it is deeply distressing, tbh. I feel it’s a sign that we’re losing the ability to act towards unified goals, even politically safe ones like “no more drug overdoses please”.

Stopping drug overdoses is far from a politically safe goal though, because you need to stop the war on drugs and take a less draconian approach, which goes directly against the hard-line stance of the Republican party.

Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017

#157

Post by taurath »

naccato wrote: post #153

The sad truth is, the U.S. is a country that emphasizes punishment over rehabilitation, and we've brought this upon ourselves by isolating people and banning access to substances that they've become dependent on. The solution here is not complex: give addicts safe access to the substances they're addicted to and resources for improving their situation. It's disheartening, to say the least, that one of the main strate…

The traditional rural tough on crime voters are now dealing with the dissonance when its their communities and families that are being ripped apart. It seems like the thing that would most help (funding free/attainable healthcare and mental health/addiction treatment) is the very last thing that any would consider.

Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017

#158

Post by jeffreyrogers »

lazerpants wrote: post #123
adventured wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 f…

If that GDP per capita isn't adjusted for inflation then living standards would probably have fallen by about 1/3.

Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017

#159

Post by rgbrenner »

adventured wrote: post #56
pjc50 wrote: post #41

Earlier 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.…

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.

It hasn't been a generation since the 2008 recession.. and there are still over 1 million fewer manufacturing jobs today than in 2008.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MANEMP

Since the low point, the industry has only added about 1 million jobs.. so they're only about 50% recovered by this stat.

Re: Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017

#160

Post by tafda »

lazerpants wrote: post #123
adventured wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 f…

Proof the claim Japan has lost 1/3 its standard of living in the past two decades is completely false:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/NYGDPPCAPKDJPN

Visit Japan sometime. The Japanese clearly have a standard of living that is among the best in the world.

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