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America’s opioid epidemic is worsening

economist.com

61–70 of 321 posts

Re: America’s opioid epidemic is worsening

#61
post #53

I know the United States will never do it, but Singapore barely has a drug problem because they execute dealers and have mandatory treatment for users. I'm not advocating the ridiculous policy that the Phillipines has, but Singapore doesn't mess around if they find distribution levels of illegal drugs on you. There also needs to be much stricter control of new prescriptions for opioids, which lead to addiction.

>There also needs to be much stricter control of new prescriptions for opioids

Like the extremely strict controls in place? Like the prosecution of doctors who run pill mills? Like the rescheduling of hydrocodone formulations?

In my local ER there is an entire framed info-poster explaining why you aren't getting your meds refilled at the ER, you won't be getting fentanyl, dilaudid or oxycodone prescribed to you no matter what. ED's work with your primary care doctor and relay info to them. States have implemented pharmacy tech that allows them to track prescriptions state-wide. (a former massive problem)

Hospitals are already doing this. Pharmacies, already doing this. Doctors are terrified of the laymen telling them they know better in the court of law. Pain is being undertreated now more than ever, which is the flipside to the crackdown you don't seem aware of, which has been happening for years now.

There will always be abusers. It's inevitable. The people who really suffer from this kind of over-reach are people like my grandparents who are nearing life's end. People dependent on pain medication for their quality of life. Non-abusers.

Maybe quality of life means nothing to you, but to them it's all they have left keeping them going. It's the only reason they can continue to live through the constant pain, the enduring misery old age and lives of very hard work has wrought upon them.

Re: America’s opioid epidemic is worsening

#62
post #43
post #4

Given that this article only touches on the supply of these drugs, is there a tacit assumption that the demand for opioids is driven by unemployment? If so, what can be done about the demand for these drugs in the long term? "Bringing back jobs" to those people whose comparative advantage is no longer manufacturing by taxing robots or imposing tariffs is a temporary stall, and to the degree it does work it amounts to…

One thing I have noticed with American doctors is that they are very quick prescribing heavy pain meds. Much quicker than in Germany for example.

I've heard Drew Pinsky rail against physicians for their role in the epidemic. But he also mentions an assist from the legal community in that they've taught patients they are entitled to lengthy doses of opioids.

Despite the evidence showing only short term benefits to opioid treatment physicians fear being sued by patients for refusing to continue prescriptions. I believe the argument is "Pain is the fifth vital sign."

Re: America’s opioid epidemic is worsening

#63
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the counterargument to this to point out the Oxycontin abuse epidemic? Doctors are prescribing years worth of opiates to patients. There have been suggestions that Purdue Pharma's formulation of Oxy practically guarantees dependence, because of the way it's dosed. Are the people dying of heroin overdoses in white rural Ohio starting on heroin, or transitioning to it after prescription opioids become too expensi…

Opioid prescriptions are declining: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/21/health/opioid-prescriptio... . And will hopefully continue to decline. Identifying the source of the problem is easy, though. Solving the problem for the masses who already find themselves in the midst of an addiction they might not even know they're in yet is much harder and what places like these injection sites are aimed to address.

They're down barely double-digit percentages from all-time highs. It's a hopeful trend, but not one that rebuts the role of pharmaceutical opioids in the epidemic.

Re: America’s opioid epidemic is worsening

#64
post #51
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the counterargument to this to point out the Oxycontin abuse epidemic? Doctors are prescribing years worth of opiates to patients. There have been suggestions that Purdue Pharma's formulation of Oxy practically guarantees dependence, because of the way it's dosed. Are the people dying of heroin overdoses in white rural Ohio starting on heroin, or transitioning to it after prescription opioids become too expensi…

If you give them free H, they'll be a lot less desperate and a lot less violent, presumably. And.. why not? I've got multiple friends in my age group prematurely dead from overdose. It's not like prohibition is accomplishing anything.

Addicts in The Netherlands get free heroin. Without the daily hustle to find the next high people have time to think instead. A lot of them find the peace to actually quit.

Actually it's really hard to keep the program going as the government doesn't like to be associated with free heroin.

Re: America’s opioid epidemic is worsening

#65
The only thing that is good about this epidemic is that it seems to have moved harm reduction onto the agenda after decades of militarized and/or "lock 'em up and throw away the key" responses. Hopefully the result will be a more rational response for all of America's drug problems regardless of the color of the users.

Re: America’s opioid epidemic is worsening

#66
post #30

I live in Trumbull County in Ohio, the dark red county in North East Ohio. We recently had 23 (non-fatal) overdoses in a two-day period[0]. That's roughly .01% of the county's total population - so yeah, it's getting bad here. There were recently two shootings within a mile of my house. Several people dead. Both shootings were drug related. I can't help but look around and believe that the needs these folks are tryin…

Isn't the counterargument to this to point out the Oxycontin abuse epidemic? Doctors are prescribing years worth of opiates to patients. There have been suggestions that Purdue Pharma's formulation of Oxy practically guarantees dependence, because of the way it's dosed. Are the people dying of heroin overdoses in white rural Ohio starting on heroin, or transitioning to it after prescription opioids become too expensi…

"Isn't the counterargument to this to point out the Oxycontin abuse epidemic?"

No because that's not even an argument.

Re: America’s opioid epidemic is worsening

#67
post #51
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't the counterargument to this to point out the Oxycontin abuse epidemic? Doctors are prescribing years worth of opiates to patients. There have been suggestions that Purdue Pharma's formulation of Oxy practically guarantees dependence, because of the way it's dosed. Are the people dying of heroin overdoses in white rural Ohio starting on heroin, or transitioning to it after prescription opioids become too expensi…

If you give them free H, they'll be a lot less desperate and a lot less violent, presumably. And.. why not? I've got multiple friends in my age group prematurely dead from overdose. It's not like prohibition is accomplishing anything.

Checkout Denmark. They had a huge problem with robberies and started giving legal pure Heroin shots to users. They also helped them find jobs. No more deaths and no more black market for Heroin. Hence burglaries also went away.

It looks like our current President is looking at cracking down on pot again though so, I don't imagine we'll have a sensible drug policy anytime soon. Only one motivated by profits.

Re: America’s opioid epidemic is worsening

#69
A potential solution:

>Legal Heroin Prescriptions: The ‘British System’ You Never Knew Existed

Basically prescribe heroin for the addicts so they don't need to deal / steal and the thing dies out. You could link getting the prescription to doing something useful work wise if you want to be moralistic. Been done since the 1920s - tried and tested.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/heroin-prescription-di...

Re: America’s opioid epidemic is worsening

#70
post #10

So what is the answer here? Like another poster said, there's a demand problem. How do we as a society address this? I've seen a lot of mumbles about dealing with supply problems, dealing with overdose problems, but it'd be good to head the problems off at the pass before they descend into major trouble. I should also note, this is a burgeoning problem in the Puget Sound/Seattle region. It's not just rural people dyi…

The problem is you have a large addicted population. Helping them get off opiates is expensive and time consuming (although orders of magnitude less than the war on drugs).

Also, depending on the level of addiction that may just be no hope for some. As another commenter said, in Holland they have had legal heroin dispensaries for 30 years, with medical staff and clean rooms for injecting. The addicts can be monitored, I believe they have general health and mental health workers available as well.

The addicts get live a "normal" as possible, knowing when and where they can get their fix. The whole day is not spent worrying where the money will come from Due to this, the average age of addict has steadily rose for years and years and, as the other commenter also stated, they die off

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