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Expert sounds alarm on new wave of US opioids crisis

theguardian.com

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Re: Expert sounds alarm on new wave of US opioids crisis

#91

Post by aaomidi »

devilbunny wrote: post #85
Der_Einzige wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The harm to society of people who need them not getting pain drugs far outweighs the pain to society of those who don’t need them abusing them. I’ve had similar experiences with them not giving me proper painmeds are having all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed. They gave me 2 weeks of Tylenol #3 and some homeopathic bullshit and expected that to be good enough. Luckily my stepdad is a serious medical patient with lots of…

I don’t live in your skin, but I had all of my wisdom teeth extracted under local anesthetics without sedation. And I never even needed an NSAID. Maybe it hurt you that bad, but it’s not par for the course.

You don’t and your judgement of someone else’s pain is not relevant to this thread or respectful and is the exact line of thinking that leads to people’s pain not being taken seriously.

Re: Expert sounds alarm on new wave of US opioids crisis

#92

Post by MSFT_Edging »

jmyeet wrote: post #56

Every part of this is made worse by capitalism. We start with over-prescription of opioids. Pharma companies make money selling them. Doctors may even make money in kickbacks (a practice that should be illegal). The disastrous War on Drugs that made opioids cheaper and easier to obtain (eg black tar heroin) than cannabis. Those who became addicts from a legal prescription turn to illegal products. Illegal pills are e…

They downvoted him because they hated hearing the truth.

The Sackler family was shielded from any consequence solely because they have money and power.

People will sometimes ask me why I sound so pro-China at times. It's not that I'm pro-China, its that I'm jealous of China. That if this happened in China, the Sacklers would have been executed by the state for the substantial harm they caused to society to make a buck and the message sent to others that they will not get away with this anti-social behavior.

Re: Expert sounds alarm on new wave of US opioids crisis

#93

Post by nobodyandproud »

rayiner wrote: post #82
kibwen wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's not a solution, or a possibility for a lot of folks. Then we need to work to make it a solution and a possibility, because I don't know what the alternative is. I'm from Appalachia, though my former oil-town retains a meager amount of relevance via the nearby industrial dairy farm. The owner of the only grocery store retired and nobody was interested in taking over, so the storefront laid empty until the gov…

[flagged]

Take this for what you will, but my parents (deceased) and I are immigrants to the US. I sympathize greatly--not exclusively--with the problems facing most of the non-coastal US but you're not doing any favors by not adding any nuance or thought.

Re: Expert sounds alarm on new wave of US opioids crisis

#94

Post by at_a_remove »

itsnotafight wrote: post #72
Der_Einzige wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The harm to society of people who need them not getting pain drugs far outweighs the pain to society of those who don’t need them abusing them. I’ve had similar experiences with them not giving me proper painmeds are having all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed. They gave me 2 weeks of Tylenol #3 and some homeopathic bullshit and expected that to be good enough. Luckily my stepdad is a serious medical patient with lots of…

> The harm to society of people who need them not getting pain drugs far outweighs the pain to society of those who don’t need them abusing them. I can see the argument here morally (and I agree with it), but in practice I know far more people negatively affected by drug addictions and drug addicts than I know people unable to get pain management medication they need. I imagine my experience may be typical, and so I…

You'll pardon me for saying something that sounds a little "woo," but what will enlighten you the most is regarding Group B (who get opioids or benzos or whatever and suffer addiction) as a subset of Group A (who need treatment and medication but aren't getting it), namely that Group B is not getting something in their lives which they desperately need.

Then you may see the unitary flaw in the system, at perhaps a larger scale, wherein people are not receiving what they need. One "right-sized" problem, not two problems. Why addiction, or better, why addiction now, what has caused the rise in such? Whatever that need was, were it met, would prevent addiction and we might then cease adding yet one more special of lenses, mirrors, and films to our ever-evolving panopticon, one more trackable in the Salesforce of the Surveillance State.

We need to look at some reasons as to why people can see, say, Tranq in Philadelphia and say, "That looks like my best option, there."

Re: Expert sounds alarm on new wave of US opioids crisis

#95

Post by dannyw »

In Australia, I had septoplasty surgery for my deviated septum and was prescribed 3 different pain meds: oxycodone, tramadol, and something else I don't remember for about 2 weeks (with an invitation to call back if I needed more).

While I feel blessed my healing went well, I was only in pain that might've warranted more than a NSAID for about a day. With nothing to do as I was on leave from work, I enjoyed the bliss of the opioid high, but thankfully did not became an addict.

Re: Expert sounds alarm on new wave of US opioids crisis

#96

Post by cprayingmantis »

nsagent wrote: post #75
diamondap wrote: post #44

A few years ago, I talked to three retired federal law enforcement agents who had each spent 20+ years fighting the cartels that were bringing drugs into the US from Mexico and South America. All three felt betrayed by the US government. They said, essentially, "We put our lives on the line many times to try to stop the flow of drugs. Then the government turned around and basically gave the pharmaceuticals license to…

My mom worked as an ER physician in Pennington Gap, VA during the early years of opioid abuse there (late nineties through through the early oughts) [1]. She would constantly complain about drug seekers there and refused to give out pain meds. According to her, she was the only doctor who would refuse to give out pain meds. Fast forward to 2022, she needed heart surgery and was in the ICU for three weeks afterward. S…

It hit this area hard. I’m from neighboring Scott County and I left in 2015 to pursue a job in a larger market. When I brought my family back in 2021 we shocked to see just how much the opioid crisis had hollowed out the community. Whatever big pharma has paid it’s not enough to repair the generations of damage it’s done to the area. I am on the local Board of Supervisors and I’m trying my best (along with the rest of the board) to get everything running back in the right direction.

Re: Expert sounds alarm on new wave of US opioids crisis

#97

Post by tpmoney »

itsnotafight wrote: post #72
Der_Einzige wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The harm to society of people who need them not getting pain drugs far outweighs the pain to society of those who don’t need them abusing them. I’ve had similar experiences with them not giving me proper painmeds are having all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed. They gave me 2 weeks of Tylenol #3 and some homeopathic bullshit and expected that to be good enough. Luckily my stepdad is a serious medical patient with lots of…

> The harm to society of people who need them not getting pain drugs far outweighs the pain to society of those who don’t need them abusing them. I can see the argument here morally (and I agree with it), but in practice I know far more people negatively affected by drug addictions and drug addicts than I know people unable to get pain management medication they need. I imagine my experience may be typical, and so I…

One question to ask yourself though is whether you're experience both confirmation bias and a bias brought about by visibility and/or age. If you're younger, you're less likely to know people with conditions that require pain management. Likewise the people around you suffering from such conditions might not be open about it because either they've already been told they just have to suck it up and live with the pain, or because they've learned that complaining/being assertive about their pain is a good way to get labeled an addict and get even worse treatment.

Re: Expert sounds alarm on new wave of US opioids crisis

#98

Post by gWPVhyxPHqvk »

nobodyandproud wrote: post #80
devjab wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Scandinavian I find this an odd take on the situation. To me it seems like the US has a very, very, broken healthcare system that you’ve chosen to have by electing politicians who aren’t going to reform it into something reasonable. My wife and I presently had twins, and we spent 7 days living in the hospital with a lot of help from nurses and so on, and it cost us $130. Which was me paying for 3 days of living…

Yes, every reason why we don't have universal healthcare comes down to voting in politicians that are against it, but what outsiders and party hardliners fail to appreciate is where the resistance comes. When the Democrats controlled the presidency and both houses, we failed to push out any reasonable form of universal healthcare and that is due to several specific interests that have a hold on the Democrat party the…

It’s wild that you blame Democrats for the failure to pass universal health care.

Re: Expert sounds alarm on new wave of US opioids crisis

#99

Post by rsynnott »

A while back I was having wisdom teeth removed, and fell down a bit of a rabbithole looking for coherent guidance on what you can do afterwards (this ranged from the HSE and NHS websites saying “don’t drink alcohol or smoke for a couple of days” to dentist websites giving dire warnings about drinking coffee within the first week - the answer seems to be “no-one really knows”).

One thing that was jarring, though, was that American sites tended to talk about strong opioids as aftercare as a matter of course; European ones never mentioned them. I got by on ibuprofen, myself.

Re: Expert sounds alarm on new wave of US opioids crisis

#100

Post by jijijijij »

jb1991 wrote: post #12
pierat wrote: post #2

[flagged]

Believe it or not, this concept of having strong pain killers available to the public is somewhat American-centric. Much of Europe does not consider the need for strong pain killers available in society, and pain tolerance is quite different in, for example Germany or the Netherlands, where it has been nearly impossible to get anything strong for pain for many decades.

I think your argument is only partly true. In Europe doctors prescribe a lot of ibuprofen, because opiates are considered "dangerous". However, ibuprofen is a really nasty medication causing kidney and stomach damage in many patients. I think especially for short term treatment, sometimes opiates would be better for public health. Also different medications treat different pain best, so choice shouldn't be limited by reluctance over false risk assessments.

But I agree, being completely pain free shouldn't be an expectation unless you are terminally ill. Much less for acute or injury related pain.

On a side note, in hospitals they probably wouldn't need as much pain medication, if they invested in better mattresses, lighting and food.

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