A letter that started a crisis

[nairiporter]

Millions have been affected, and tens of thousands die every year from the so called opioid crisis in the US. Preliminary data shows that last year drug overdose has killed well over 62 thousand people in America, a 19% increase. And the problem keeps deepening. It has become the leading reason for mortality among Americans under 50 years of age,

Comments

[johnny9fingers]

Also OxyContin Alley voted en masse for the Donald...

Oh well, it's all good to someone no doubt.

[oportet]

If throwing 388 million at the problem got us these results, I see no problem with slashing that budget.

There may be no simple solution, but the simplest is - produce less, prescribe less.

Possible side effects include; rise in illegal drug production, people with genuine pain not getting adequate help, society no longer being able to support a Walgreens, CVS, and Rite-Aid being on every other corner.

[johnny9fingers]

Taking x million folk's smack away and leaving them go cold turkey is going to be so good for social cohesion; especially as the junkies we are talking about are mostly the disenfranchised, white, working class/underclass, and armed.

Good luck with that as a social program.

[oportet]

If cutting our losses is inevitable - sooner is better than later.

[mikeyxw]

I don't even think it's cutting losses, it's more like stopping digging. There certainly are quite a few people who are suffering from pain, but an opium addiction is many times worse. For someone with terminal cancer, by all means give them whatever pain relief you can. However, when the treatment for a joint injury turns into an addiction that destroys you and your family, the whole "first, do no harm" thing has gone out the window.

[htpcl]

Whatever one does to themselves, no one else can do to them. Same goes to entire societies.