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Who Is Telling the Truth About Prescription Opioid Deaths?

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Re: Who Is Telling the Truth About Prescription Opioid Deaths?

#71

Post by [deleted] »

shabda wrote: post #23
DanBC wrote: post #20

This article misses several points. When we ask people with a substance misuse disorder who use opioids what they started on we find, very often, that they started on meds prescribed by a doctor. Those meds may not have been prescribed to them - they may have been prescribed to a neighbour or family member - but they were prescribed. This is why the massive over-prescription of opioids is a problem. It floods America…

> Opioids may be a good choice for some people with long term pain (I personaly don't think they are) What do you suggest be given to people with chronic pain which can't be managed with lower powered pain killers, say people with cancer induced pain?

[deleted]

Re: Who Is Telling the Truth About Prescription Opioid Deaths?

#72

Post by GordonS »

viggity wrote: post #70
GordonS wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I've been on the same dosage for years. I mentioned in another comment that I take magnesium, which is an NMDA antagonist, and there is a lot of evidence that these prevent the buildup of tolerance. I don't know if that's why I can remain on the same doseage, or if it's simply that I always stick to the prescribed dose.

magnesium sulfate? citrate? dose?

I take citrate, which I initially chose for it's laxative effects. Not sure if it's the most effective for reducing tolerance.

Agmatine is a more potent NMDA antagonist, but is unfortunately no longer available in the EU, due to the fairly 2017 Novel Food Regulation[1]

  [1] https://ec.europa.eu/food/sites/food/files/oc_oof_analysis_main_outcome_en.pdf

Re: Who Is Telling the Truth About Prescription Opioid Deaths?

#73

Post by sintaxi »

xorfish wrote: post #35
sintaxi wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opioids are not stigmatized enough. They destroy lives plain and simple.

There are lots of opioids that are safer than alcohol. Sure none are completely save, but some have a lower overdose risk and are less damaging to the body.

Only if you're talking about not killing people. By "destroying lives" I'm not talking exclusively about death. As dangerous as alcohol is, one can still have a highly functional life even when abusing it.

Re: Who Is Telling the Truth About Prescription Opioid Deaths?

#74

Post by sintaxi »

Vinnl wrote: post #19
sintaxi wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opioids are not stigmatized enough. They destroy lives plain and simple.

I don't think anyone disputes that they destroy lives; what people wonder is what is the most effective way to prevent them from doing that, and what to do with cases where they are already doing that. One can seriously question whether "stigma" is that most effective way.

It worked wonders for smoking cigarettes. Stigmatizing tobacco played a huge part in lowering the number of people using it.

Re: Who Is Telling the Truth About Prescription Opioid Deaths?

#75

Post by cookiecaper »

eletious wrote: post #65
dools wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A substance's addictive ness does not equate to lethality. The reason it's dosed incorrectly is because it is manufactured and sold in an unregulated environment. That is the cause of its lethality. Also I'm not referring exclusively to physical pain, but trauma or lack of emotional and social connection.

The addictive nature of the substance combined with the body's growing resistance to it leads to users of the substance to use larger doses to achieve the same high, in some cases not exercising any caution about dosage, leading to overdose.

This is a reason to continue to prescribe drugs through a licensed medical professional. Most long-term medications can't just be stopped without serious adverse effects.

By and large, drugs will be a large social problem until going to the doctor to get a monitored, controlled dose is the easiest way to get a fix. If we keep pharmacists and doctors in control, they can ween dependent users off in a controlled, gradual environment.

Prohibition keeps drug abuse firing on all cylinders until the addict slams into a brick wall (which, very often, is simply death), instead of giving them the equivalent of a "runaway truck" ramp that will allow them to gradually slow the pace and return to a normal existence.

Re: Who Is Telling the Truth About Prescription Opioid Deaths?

#76

Post by Vinnl »

sintaxi wrote: post #74
Vinnl wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone disputes that they destroy lives; what people wonder is what is the most effective way to prevent them from doing that, and what to do with cases where they are already doing that. One can seriously question whether "stigma" is that most effective way.

It worked wonders for smoking cigarettes. Stigmatizing tobacco played a huge part in lowering the number of people using it.

Maybe, though the stigma there took the form of legalising it, allowing people to openly come forward and seek help, and levying heavy taxes. I'd say drugs are even more stigmatised (to the point of being largely illegal), which so far hasn't really result in lowering usage numbers.

Re: Who Is Telling the Truth About Prescription Opioid Deaths?

#77

Post by dools »

maccard wrote: post #44
dools wrote: post #7

The whole "opioid" shit fight can be summarised as: Pharmaceutical companies needed a way to profit from developing alternatives to morphine so they developed a bunch of dangerous bullshit then convinced everyone it was safer than morphine even though it's not. Morphine is awesome and has as its only long term side effect constipation. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Prescribe morphine, including to heroin addicts w…

> Drug policy is so stupid. In a nutshell, yes. The solution isn't as clear-cut as you'd make it out to be unfortunately. > Morphine is awesome and has as its only long term side effect constipation. That's sugar coating it. Morphine is a great solution to many things, but it's extremely addictive, and has more side effects than constipation (shallow breathing for one, which combined with alcohol can make for a nasty…

I'm not saying "give people who are dependent more opioids" I'm saying that while you're treating the problems that drove them to become dependent in the first place, it makes sense to give them easy access to clean drugs so they don't have to deal with 2 personal crises at once. For example, Heroin Assisted Treatment:

http://www.sdf.org.uk/heroin-assisted-treatment-provided-gla...

Re: Who Is Telling the Truth About Prescription Opioid Deaths?

#78

Post by sintaxi »

Vinnl wrote: post #76
sintaxi wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It worked wonders for smoking cigarettes. Stigmatizing tobacco played a huge part in lowering the number of people using it.

Maybe, though the stigma there took the form of legalising it, allowing people to openly come forward and seek help, and levying heavy taxes. I'd say drugs are even more stigmatised (to the point of being largely illegal), which so far hasn't really result in lowering usage numbers.

44% of Americans are prescribed opioids each year.
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