Posted on 11/02/2019 10:07:18 AM PDT by grumpygresh
Of the 2916 people who died in Massachusetts between 2013-2015 (and had complete toxicology reports):
1789 (61%) had heroin detected. 1322 (45%) had fentanyl detected. Only 39 (1.3%) of the decedents who had a prescription opioid detected in their body had an active (legal) prescription for that opioid on the day they died. In other words, 98.7% of the people who died and had a prescription drug in their body obtained that drug illegally (not by prescription). This confirms that it is (and has been) the abuse, not the use of opioids that is killing people. Properly managed pain patients who take their medicines as prescribed are not the overdose victims.
(Excerpt) Read more at acsh.org ...
Spiritual despair* not just economic.
It’s the spiritual despair causing select people to commit mass shootings too. Not the guns’ fault.
Isn’t it a vicious circle? Opioids are highly addictive, and people turn to street suppliers when the prescription no longer meets their needs, or isn’t renewed. Any time I was prescribed a narcotic pain killer there were no refills without seeing a doc. I have a friend going through recovery from being prescribed an opioid for more than a year. Some doctors are more lenient with prescriptions than others.
Fentanyl is a pain medication and usually starts as a prescription but is highly addictive. Can cause respiratory distress and death when taken in high doses or when combined with other substances, especially alcohol.
And even the 1.3% presumably died as a result of whatever painful condition led the opiate prescription (cancer, etc), and not from the opiate.
bump
[[Isn’t it a vicious circle? Opioids are highly addictive]]
When taken as prescribed, they are not highly addictive- studies prove that less than 2% get addicted -
Les than 2% (More like 1%) turn to street drugs after-
“When taken as prescribed, they are not highly addictive- studies prove that less than 2% get addicted -
Les than 2% (More like 1%) turn to street drugs after-”
The whole opioid scare sounds like the desire to create one more victim class and forgiveness of irresponsible behavior... and of course subsequent lawsuits.
Not surprising.
We shouldn’t punish law abiding people who need prescription meds.
My vet father was 88 and had 6 cracked vertebrae in his back. He could only function with opioids, otherwise he was in terrible pain. He needed opioids and died of natural causes.
Not many. That’s the next lie by the Prohibitionists
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6369835/
« Yet, the volume of opioids prescribed in the United States almost doubled between 2002 and 2014.5 Doubling the amount of opioids prescribed does not seem to have had a discernible effect on the rate of nonmedical use or the rate of pain reliever use disorder »
It’s the young people that are dying and they are getting whatever they can illegally which is even more dangerous. Thanks to a corrupt dea that encourages the illicit market.
We learn from history is that we don’t learn from history. Prohibition doesn’t work.
Yes, monstrous numbers of addicted party dopers—whole families of them in many cases—are associating themselves with legitimate patients.
This all started when Obamacare was shoved through, the doctors were told to give out pain pills instead of expensive therapy, surgery. Then you have those who have had 10 or more spine surgeries, War injured that will need pain meds all their lives.
Chris Christie a very bitter loser recommended the current CDC Director who wanted Revenge his 37 yr old musician son OD’d and lived on Heroin/Fen. Addiction Shrink Andrew Kolodny is just a greedy B. who wants to push Suboxone and Methadone in the clinics he affiliated with. Then he testifies for Pharma and against them telling lies. Higher up Never Trumpers of the RNC vetted them and approved them. They went after Soft targets as street dealers are hard targets. Thousands of Intractable pain patients have died of Strokes, Heart Attacks, and Suicides.
Prescriptions Aren’t the Problem
Doctors “over-prescribing” opioids did not cause our “drug crisis.” Nearly half of all overdoses don’t involve opioids at all. Among remaining drug-related deaths in 2017, half involved illicit drugs — imported fentanyl and heroin. Only about 18,000 deaths involved a “prescription opioid” — and most of those also involved multiple illegal drugs and alcohol. Medical exposure is not the problem.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse says most addicts begin to abuse alcohol and drugs in their teens or early 20s – before they encounter opioids. Contrast that with folks over age 55. Seniors are prescribed opioids for pain three times more often than youth under age 18. But seniors have the lowest overdose rates of any age group. Kids now overdose six times more often.
We do have an addiction crisis in America. But it’s related to lack of care, not prescribing. Prescriptions to people in pain are rarely involved in this tragedy. Restricting drug supply and counting pills won’t help. Forcing pain patients off the only medications that work won’t help.
Restrictive policies are now driving pain management doctors out of practice across America — and driving patients into agony, disability, and sometimes suicide when they are deserted. Most of what we hear in media about opioids and addiction is flat out wrong.
We know what is really needed. Politicians just don’t want to pay for it.
Nobody knows how to “cure” addiction. We may never know. The best we can do is early prevention and later harm reduction. Some educational programs starting in Middle School don’t work (“Just Say No” was a total failure). But others have shown results. For people already addicted, the most effective harm reduction is Medication Assisted Treatment (Methadone or Buprenorphine), combined with long term community reintegration.
Reintegration means job training, safe housing, mental-health and recovery counseling — and support for people who relapse. 28-day detox clinics and Narcotics Anonymous don’t work alone. Such programs have high relapse rates when recovering addicts are discharged without support into the same circumstances that made them vulnerable to drugs in the first place.
Addiction recovery is neither cheap nor easy. We must invest billions every year in our labor force, housing and communities. We must also divert non-violent drug offenders out of the justice system. Even the Christie Commission got that one right. But more restrictions on doctors and their patients aren’t the answer.
What We Can Learn from Germany About the Opioid Crisis
November 01, 2019
By Roger Chriss, PNN Columnist EDS patient
Lots of Links as is usual for Roger Chriss articles.
But illicit fentanyl is spreading westward, and from San Diego to Seattle a rise in overdose deaths has been seen throughout 2019, much of it caused by counterfeit medication. So the “gains” of last year may quickly evaporate. Fentanyl is cheap to make, easy to distribute, and getting into the entire drug supply. Meth and cocaine are re-surging, too.
The drug overdose crisis is evolving fast. Most overdoses involve multiple substances, often with inadvertent exposure or as a result of counterfeit or tainted drugs. And some are suicides. Now in the vaping outbreak we are seeing the impact of new technologies and new chemicals used in novel ways.
The answer is to allow them to check in to designated Democrat states. The following is one of several common enticements to their kind besides legalized and/or otherwise socially approved drugs.
California’s Prop 47 leads to rise in shoplifting, thefts, criminal activity across state
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3790738/posts
But as with roach motels, don’t let them check out. Set up barriers and checkpoints to prevent that.
The Painful Truth | The Painful Truth | PBS
https://www.pbs.org/video/painful-truth-painful-truth/?fbclid=IwAR3AYkKoM3C7wERLO9Uz5qmYcIhlQJBEeDWBringXAZanj5TCHDXqcBGD70
Today’s Drug Abusers Did Not Derive From Yesterday’s Patients | Cato @ Liberty
https://www.cato.org/blog/todays-iv-drug-abusers-were-not-yesterdays-patients?fbclid=IwAR2CBv5ukpHSK7L6FbEAg3aOeDTGlGCTEu1B1MXljUfAHVWQr-jpyF12YUM
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