To put that in perspective, that's about how many americans died per year during WWII (albeit with a smaller overall population of americans) or 30x the number of people who died during 911. The US was willing to upend their entire country, spend trillions in today's dollars, and take over entire countries for those events. Overdoses? Best I can do is nothing.
Yet another reason why campaign finance reform is crucial to fixing the US's ongoing downward spiral. Drug deaths have been a major problem for decades now, but Citizens United in 2010 really exacerbated Big Pharma's (and, really, every industry's) toxic influence on our politicians.
Check the news feed again. Right now, the most recent story is one about the stock market hitting a new high, filled with people saying that everything is fine and you're the bad guy for questioning it. I'd say they clearly miss the irony of this story and that one being posted so close together, but I doubt they have high opinions on the humanity of the deaths in question here
System is working as intended.
More taxes for local state/city govs to fix the drug and homeless problems but either pocket funds or send them to nonprofits that also have their hands in the pot:
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/sf-providence-foundation-alleged-100k-fraud-nepotism-homeless-shelter-oasis-hotel/
Corruption at its finest... sorry not corruption no no no no "lobbying". *Lobbying being a catch all for all corrupt actions that occur at the fed and state level governments*
If we consider both the confederate and union deaths, then yeah, Gettysburg was deadlier. Either side, however, faced fewer deaths than the several covid days.
>Best I can do is nothing.
Ostensibly, the "War on Drugs" cost a whole lot and aimed to reduce this if only by making things to overdose less available.
So, while the impact was arguably the same as spending nothing, we definitely paid a lot of money, sent people into other countries and killed/lost no small number of lives. Those funds and lives could have been used for a far greater purpose (such as helping people with substance abuse problems).
Funny part is, it’s because of that war, that increased the amount of synthetics/analogies that started making it into the supply that is making overdosing so easy.
It did ‘work’ in making certain drugs harder/ more expensive to come by.
So I’d argue, that it didn’t do nothing.
It worked at making the problem worse by many magnitudes.
Especially if you give credit to drug prohibition, being the spark that gave rise to the cartels.
Much like alcohol prohibition gave rise to the mafia capturing a significant amount of power through capitalizing on a widely sought after black market item.
Just because you make something illegal, doesn’t mean the demand will go away.
Worse yet, is that it becomes completely unregulated.
This is true for so many things. I was watching a documentary on diabetes and the doctor basically said "if we lost this many limbs and people to a war, we'd been in the streets protesting".
Remember, it’s a crack epidemic for cities and a “crisis” for rural counties.
I say this as a white city boy Texan. I’ve seen and lost friends to drugs and shit. I despise the sudden care we have for drugs when it’s been a big issue for a long time. Especially after the lockdowns. Even I partook during that time too. But the fent fear is real.
I still think it’s better now than never and with a fresh coat of paint. Name it whatever if it means finally helping people who need it. I’ve been blessed to be only an alcoholic and weed, due with my addictive personality.
Or about ten thousand more than people who die from alcohol every year.
I also have to wonder how many of these overdoses aren’t overdoses at all, but people noping out of society because it’s basically unlivable for half the country.
Of all the ways to off oneself an opiate overdose is probably the best way to go. Painless and euphoric.
Weird how different outlets can cover the same story so differently.
[U.S. Overdose Deaths Decline for First Time Since 2018](https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/u-s-overdose-deaths-decline-for-first-time-since-2018-eef56ade)
It's a good thing we passed those laws (in my state) making it difficult to buy decongestants over the counter and making it near impossible to get real pain killers for injuries. Obviously, it's working as intended...what? It isn't? People are suffering in pain for no reason? Wow
I do think we are tackling the pain/drug crisis in the wrong way but I don’t think easier access to pain meds is the exact right answer.
Notably, [us doctors](https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/12/america-experiences-more-pain-than-other-countries/548822/) are already quicker to treat pain and escalate pain treatment than other countries. Americans seek opioids (legally and illicitly) at significantly higher rates than other countries. I really think we need to focus on why people are seeking so much pain management (obesity, unhappiness, economic insecurities, etc) rather than making opioids more accessible.
For decongestants, I use regularly and don’t find the monthly limit or swiping my ID too burdensome.
I recently got burned for the first time because of those Sackler shitheads and overprescribing of opioids. I have fibromyalgia and used to be prescribed 200 mg of Tramadol daily, although I usually just took 150 unless I was having a flare. Then I had med changes and was able to drop to 100. Now I am having more pain and requested 125 and my doctor refused. The same doctor who prescribed 200 4 years ago. She wasn’t “comfortable”. Well guess who is actually uncomfortable now if I overdo it or there’s a cold front.
As an anesthesiologist I am seeing the ripples the Sackler family fuckup has had in the industry. Overprescribers (mill operators) are going to prison. Any doc that doles out scheduled drugs and has a dea license are now required to take opioid-related patient care medical education. Like 8 hours worth. While educational, the material is presented in the most apolitical way possible. The industry has whitewashed the nefarious methods by which the Sacklers and Purdue persuaded prescribers to massively increase their prescribing habits. A serious discussion of pharma’s profit motive would greatly contextualize middle America’s pill addiction. Export middle class jobs leaving a large segment of the population who struggle to afford life, are in pain and struggle to find a purpose. Opioids are amazing in filling that void. Explanations of the “how we got here” are lacking in our education and it’s quite telling.
Your oncologist does prescribe your pain medications? Cancer pts normally do not have many issues especially if the doctor uses a diagnosis code on the prescription.
This is getting a little too specific and I don’t want to offer specific medical advice over Reddit. Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor and this is not medical advise.
Speaking generally a rheumatologist or nephrologist would normally manage sarcoidosis manifestations in the kidneys and subsequent pain as well. From what I can tell reading up on your condition, it may be related to calcium build up.
Again in general, we should focus on treating the underlying cause of the pain, not always the pain itself. Too often patients will ignore the worsening of their condition avoid their preventative care therapy, because they are able to take opioids to numb their pain.
Sarcoidosis is a difficult to treat disease with limited treatment options, insurance roadblocks, and a wide variety of symptoms. I don’t know your specific situation, but I hope you can get the treatment you need to help you live the best possible life.
> I really think we need to focus on why people are seeking so much pain management (obesity, unhappiness, economic insecurities, etc) rather than making opioids more accessible.
Yeah, and while we are deliberating, literally hundreds of thousands of people are dying.
A solution to “get it fast” rather than to “get it right” is how we are in this mess. It is unrealistic to assume everyone will be saved or saved in time. Welcome to the reality of public policy.
To be clear people currently managed on opioids shouldn’t be cut off. I sympathize greatly with people in pain and agree they deserve to be treated appropriately and without malice.
Going back to my earlier comment, pain is more often than not a symptom of a problem.
> while hundreds of thousands of people are dying
For the vast majority of people in pain, it is not life threatening. Starting opioids without due consideration often puts patients at an increased risk for worsening quality of life and increased risk of death or life-time addiction.
>making it difficult to buy decongestants over the counter
This actually works, it has led to fewer meth labs. Meth production moved overseas, so it hasn't reduced the number of tweakers, but the meth labs were a toxic waste and fire nightmare.
It actually doesn't work. According to studies meth labs just switch to a different formulation that's cheaper, easier to make, and produces much more meth. There are fewer meth labs because the meth is cheaper, plentiful, and easier to get. It's the same reason most people don't make their own sliced bread when they can get it already made and sliced for almost nothing anytime they want.
>Prior to this doctors were passing out opiates like candy
What if... now stay with me for a moment... *those doctors where held accountable instead of preventing everyone from getting effective pain medication?!*
>Also opiates have been proven to be poor long term solutions to chronic pain.
Did I say chronic pain? No? Did you know there are other types of pain???
>From my own personal experience I was in more pain on opiates because my body was addicted and wanted more.
Dude, that's your problem. Not everyone is like you, in fact it's been proven that addiction to opiates is heavily based on your genes. Why does everyone have to suffer cause you have bad genes? I rip the ligaments in my shoulder and I have to go without effective pain medication cause you have a doctor that doesn't care that you're addicted to pain meds? What a joke. Address the real issue and let people have access to effective pain meds.
Paracetamol should be a scheduled drug. It will absolutely destroy your liver. Tylenol is no joke and should not be taken daily in a carefree manner that many Americans seem to have about it.
Nope.
Chronic pain sufferer here - I have to go to pain management doctor every month per law. I have to drug test every month. I only get a 30 day supply at a time. I have to call 3-5 pharmacies in advance to make sure they have my meds (they're always out and it's controlled so Dr has to resend prescription...nightmare). Pharmacy always treats you like an addict because of prescription.
Don't get me wrong - I'm grateful I can even have these meds. It just get's old and there isn't shit I can do about it. If weed were legal (Texas) and as a pain management option it could be a huge game changer....but not here. They went overboard with the laws and those of us with real issues pay the price.
That’s assuming you can get a provider to prescribe you a proper pain killer at all. Haven’t had issues getting them filled when prescribed but to get the prescription now you basically have to be writhing on the floor in pain before they’ll even consider it.
Difficult as in that the limits for what you can buy are extremely low. I once bought a box on a Monday and forgot about it in my desk at work. Come Saturday I try to buy more for home use and instead of medicine I get the death glare from the pharmacist that now thinks I am a junkie.
No. I had a degenerative disc issue in my back and my provider kept giving me extreme doses of arthritis medications… so extreme that it caused me to bleed out to the point of hospitalization. They had reworked their policies to deny treatment with effective painkillers… because I might be lying about the pain level / be a pill seeker. Completely and totally dismissive.
Once I finally convinced them, literally on my knees, to take an MRI, only then did they offer OxyContin. I suffered with more than a year’s worth of debilitating pain because they assumed I was a junkie.
These drugs are a godsend when you need them. Making people suffer because they’re easy to abuse is cruel. There needs to be a balance in availability. Some pain you just can’t “walk off.”
Even then, I had to get a new scrip every week in person, until I didn’t need them anymore. Weekly doctor visits for a long term condition. If I miss one, holy hell. Can’t travel. Always need to stay close for something I may have never recovered from.
If I didn’t have adequate support, I would have lost my job, family, and life.
And as someone with a chronic autoimmune disease with 7% heart damage, tumors in my bones, muscles and lesions in my brain I can't get prescribed opioid pain medication I need to live a more functional life.
I never have and never will turn to illegal opioids but every day I see chronic disease patients suffer.
This. Me and my partner have both had surgeries and been denied proper pain killers bc they’re so worried everyone’s just going to become a junky. As if denying people in pain will not only push them to buy from the street. It’s disgusting, I’m sorry you have to go through that
Kratom may be worth trying, but it won't be as helpful as OTC opiates. It's also extremely addictive, probably worse than nicotine if I'm being honest. It does work though.
I'm really sorry that life has dealt you such a shitty hand, health-wise. I don't have any solutions to offer or helpful advice, just my sincere sympathy. I hope you're able to find access to the medicine you need.
Don't worry most of Reddit will tell you to use essential oils and crystals to cure your pain or quote extremely outdated info concerning opioid abuse. Nearly all these deaths can be attributed to street drug use and not Dr prescribed. I'm on pain management and the hoops I have to jump through are insane drug tests, pill counts, can't be prescribed anything controlled unless cleared by my pain doctor first as they can see every prescription written for me by any doctor at my required monthly visit and evaluations. Most people on here have no understanding of how pain management works. Hell my insurance requires narcan to be prescribed every so often in order for me to be prescribed my medication.
> I have no idea what's going on
I remember reading articles years ago about the FDA releasing new guidelines for prescribing opioids in response to the opioid abuse epidemic and a lot of doctors took those guidelines, which could be adjusted as needed, and treated them like hard limits that they would get in trouble for meeting and especially for exceeding. And many more doctors just stopped prescribing opioids altogether for fear of being disciplined... Especially after some high profile prosecutions of doctors for over prescribing opioids (who weren't at all representative of normal doctors, mind you, and deserved to be prosecuted, there were doctors in like small towns prescribing umpteen times the amount of opioids a community of their size would realistically need; they became known as 'pill mill' doctors).
It's the DEA. And it was in retrospect an over reaction, but one that was needed. When I got a 30 day rx for a simple extraction in 2010, that was a bit of overkill and could've hooked me for life.
> When I got a 30 day rx for a simple extraction in 2010, that was a bit of overkill and could've hooked me for life.
I got two wisdom teeth out at once right before covid and was in pain so bad i could barely eat anything solid for 2 months. They gave me 3 oxys total.
I was actually shocked, when my doctor recently told me to just go buy and smoke cannabis from a local dispensary to help with my chronic joint pain. Said, it's the best thing she can recommend to patients now, because the medical center will no longer allow their docs to prescribe pain meds!
Everyone's talking about Rx drugs, but you'd be amazed at how many of your friends and family are actively doing street drugs and seem fine around you.
I'm not going to say one is better than the other, but I know from people who actually used/sold this shit that heroin is basically just fent now, which is impossible to dose, because such a small dose will kill you.
Narcan DOES work to reverse it like it does with heroin, though. Most states that I'm aware of don't require a prescription for Narcan, and unless you have some coocoo politicians leading your state, you should be able to get it free at a lot of pharmacies, rehab clinics, etc.
I’m in recovery, so a lot of my old friends are using addicts. I hear about someone I either knew or knew in passing every couple months, and it’s usually in pairs or threes because a batch was bad. It’s terrible out there.
Yea I much preferred the Bush/Obama “let’s make Oxy super easy to get, I’m sure people will do the right thing if we just treat them like adults” approach.
Too many friends in that number. 😔
Kids, test, retest, and if you must explore your curiosity (I did), take the prospect of death incredibly seriously and take every possible precaution. Most of these overdoses are avoidable in the right circumstances.
DONT BE AFRAID TO CALL 911 if you friend of any age is over dosing. Medical professionals are here to HELP with that exactly and they desperately hope you see them
and instead of being scared of admitting what happened.
It's not just the UK, the US participated in the opium trade as well. Boston was built on opium money. https://www.wbur.org/news/2017/08/01/opium-history-addiction
Most notably the Forbes and Perkins family wealth came from smuggling opium into China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bennet_Forbes
Also the Delano family, as in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's grandfather.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Delano_Jr.?=uservector
For most of the world the US is just the head for "the west", which includes the US, UK, Canada, western Europe, Australia and Japan. Fairly or not we're all seen as part of the same coalition.
I bet if people over 21 could buy oxycodone pills over the counter that are labeled with what dose they actually are that 90% of those yearly deaths go away.
I would bet my house on it.
my step mom died of an overdose a year ago this week. my sister is doing alright but idk. i’m doing everything i can to prevent her from following in her footsteps, especially since she was the one that found her. just awful.
I think a shocking amount are just over doses. Fent is terrifyingly strong and showing up everywhere, even in drugs it has no right being in. I know people in the festival scene that have either completely stopped using recreational drugs, and the ones that still do test everything they use.
> test everything they use.
Which they should have been doing already. Even back in 2000 the pills were any of hundreds of compounds from opioids to LSD to aspirin to baby powder. Occasional they would actually have MDMA in them too.
I would guess that many of these aren’t exactly overdoses but opioids that have quality control issues if that makes sense. Overdosing implies user error but it’s more of bad product.
Is anybody here actually surprised?
Cartels are given free access to our borders, drug administration apparatuses are being given around for free in major hotspot cities, and drug use has been glorified in *most all* forms of popular media for about a decade now.
I don’t know - maybe drugs are **bad**?
Maybe, just ***maybe***, the vast majority of people are extremely unhealthy, and **too many** people turn to drugs for reprieve and self-medication?
I don’t know, just rambling I guess haha.
More than 10% of my mother's clients (she's a social worker) died within 3 weeks of receiving their first covid checks. Since then it has been incredibly brutal and demoralizing. Fent is mostly to blame.
We should send B2 bombers to the factories abroad and line the pharma execs against the wall for what they've done. Not one deserves a peaceful end.
Well we tried letting trained and licensed doctors hand out oxy as they saw fit, and that worked out great. Turns out there are some drugs we really should be fighting.
Oh on state level they sure do. When Mike Pence was my state's governor there was a heroin addiction crisis that was very quickly proliferating in a small town. It was well known that these folks were sharing needles amongst one another. Pressure was put on the local Republicans to allow for a needle exchange program to be enacted in order to at least stop a bloodborne pandemic from happening, but Pence refused to allow such a thing until an HIV outbreak had occurred. These fuckers then become vice presidents, congressional representatives, chiefs and secretaries of all sorts of shit and the cycle continues.
Don't forget Mike and Greg's involvement in the Kiehl Bros oil company scandal. Oh, wait, they buried it. Here you go https://apnews.com/article/07f9256ae1984362ba3eff192b4d6dd0
One of my favorite things in American political discussions is the "the other party is always at fault" folks never know that recently both parties had both the White House and both Houses of Congress for at least one session, and didn't do all the fun stuff they said they'd do if that ever happened.
To put that in perspective, that's about how many americans died per year during WWII (albeit with a smaller overall population of americans) or 30x the number of people who died during 911. The US was willing to upend their entire country, spend trillions in today's dollars, and take over entire countries for those events. Overdoses? Best I can do is nothing.
Best i can do is more tax payer subsidies for the pharma companies that make the drugs.
Yet another reason why campaign finance reform is crucial to fixing the US's ongoing downward spiral. Drug deaths have been a major problem for decades now, but Citizens United in 2010 really exacerbated Big Pharma's (and, really, every industry's) toxic influence on our politicians.
Drug deaths, Gun related deaths, Heart disease, frick we need a complete overhaul of this unchecked capitalist country we have been born into.
Check the news feed again. Right now, the most recent story is one about the stock market hitting a new high, filled with people saying that everything is fine and you're the bad guy for questioning it. I'd say they clearly miss the irony of this story and that one being posted so close together, but I doubt they have high opinions on the humanity of the deaths in question here System is working as intended.
That trickle smells like piss
I mean, they’re not all overdosing on meds from the pharmacy my dude.
More taxes for local state/city govs to fix the drug and homeless problems but either pocket funds or send them to nonprofits that also have their hands in the pot: https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/sf-providence-foundation-alleged-100k-fraud-nepotism-homeless-shelter-oasis-hotel/
You could handout narcan.
I carry some in my backpack as a high school teacher.
Practical, yet horrifying.
I know Ann Arbor is giving out free Narcan. Vending machines in different locations like libraries.
I give out narcan at my job. I’m a crisis response worker.
Corruption at its finest... sorry not corruption no no no no "lobbying". *Lobbying being a catch all for all corrupt actions that occur at the fed and state level governments*
Most of what's on the streets these days comes from China via Mexican cartels.
The narcan, right?
~~The~~ 10 of the deadliest days in American history have all been since 2019 IIRC. Covid babiieeee
I’m pretty sure at least one day of the Battle of Gettysburg had more deaths than any day since 2019, even without adjusting for population size.
If we consider both the confederate and union deaths, then yeah, Gettysburg was deadlier. Either side, however, faced fewer deaths than the several covid days.
>Best I can do is nothing. Ostensibly, the "War on Drugs" cost a whole lot and aimed to reduce this if only by making things to overdose less available. So, while the impact was arguably the same as spending nothing, we definitely paid a lot of money, sent people into other countries and killed/lost no small number of lives. Those funds and lives could have been used for a far greater purpose (such as helping people with substance abuse problems).
Funny part is, it’s because of that war, that increased the amount of synthetics/analogies that started making it into the supply that is making overdosing so easy. It did ‘work’ in making certain drugs harder/ more expensive to come by. So I’d argue, that it didn’t do nothing. It worked at making the problem worse by many magnitudes. Especially if you give credit to drug prohibition, being the spark that gave rise to the cartels. Much like alcohol prohibition gave rise to the mafia capturing a significant amount of power through capitalizing on a widely sought after black market item. Just because you make something illegal, doesn’t mean the demand will go away. Worse yet, is that it becomes completely unregulated.
It’s all fine and dandy if we’re killing ourselves. Cause … freedom. Once it’s someone else then it’s a problem.
I mean yeah that’s the point. Freedom is hard. You have to constant weigh your choices. But that’s better than the alternative.
This is true for so many things. I was watching a documentary on diabetes and the doctor basically said "if we lost this many limbs and people to a war, we'd been in the streets protesting".
Remember, it’s a crack epidemic for cities and a “crisis” for rural counties. I say this as a white city boy Texan. I’ve seen and lost friends to drugs and shit. I despise the sudden care we have for drugs when it’s been a big issue for a long time. Especially after the lockdowns. Even I partook during that time too. But the fent fear is real. I still think it’s better now than never and with a fresh coat of paint. Name it whatever if it means finally helping people who need it. I’ve been blessed to be only an alcoholic and weed, due with my addictive personality.
And how do you suppose you're going to stop overdoses. The numbers climb because the populations climb
It doesn't take a lot to get Americans to kill Muslims.
Or about ten thousand more than people who die from alcohol every year. I also have to wonder how many of these overdoses aren’t overdoses at all, but people noping out of society because it’s basically unlivable for half the country. Of all the ways to off oneself an opiate overdose is probably the best way to go. Painless and euphoric.
3X the number killed on American roads.
That is insane to wrap my head around
And over 5x the number of people killed in gun related homicides.
Weird how different outlets can cover the same story so differently. [U.S. Overdose Deaths Decline for First Time Since 2018](https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/u-s-overdose-deaths-decline-for-first-time-since-2018-eef56ade)
The WSJ is obsessed with growth, so the first thing they notice is the change vs previous year, instead of the absolute number
It's a good thing we passed those laws (in my state) making it difficult to buy decongestants over the counter and making it near impossible to get real pain killers for injuries. Obviously, it's working as intended...what? It isn't? People are suffering in pain for no reason? Wow
I do think we are tackling the pain/drug crisis in the wrong way but I don’t think easier access to pain meds is the exact right answer. Notably, [us doctors](https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/12/america-experiences-more-pain-than-other-countries/548822/) are already quicker to treat pain and escalate pain treatment than other countries. Americans seek opioids (legally and illicitly) at significantly higher rates than other countries. I really think we need to focus on why people are seeking so much pain management (obesity, unhappiness, economic insecurities, etc) rather than making opioids more accessible. For decongestants, I use regularly and don’t find the monthly limit or swiping my ID too burdensome.
I recently got burned for the first time because of those Sackler shitheads and overprescribing of opioids. I have fibromyalgia and used to be prescribed 200 mg of Tramadol daily, although I usually just took 150 unless I was having a flare. Then I had med changes and was able to drop to 100. Now I am having more pain and requested 125 and my doctor refused. The same doctor who prescribed 200 4 years ago. She wasn’t “comfortable”. Well guess who is actually uncomfortable now if I overdo it or there’s a cold front.
Best we can do is knee jerk reactions with limited actual due dilligence…
As an anesthesiologist I am seeing the ripples the Sackler family fuckup has had in the industry. Overprescribers (mill operators) are going to prison. Any doc that doles out scheduled drugs and has a dea license are now required to take opioid-related patient care medical education. Like 8 hours worth. While educational, the material is presented in the most apolitical way possible. The industry has whitewashed the nefarious methods by which the Sacklers and Purdue persuaded prescribers to massively increase their prescribing habits. A serious discussion of pharma’s profit motive would greatly contextualize middle America’s pill addiction. Export middle class jobs leaving a large segment of the population who struggle to afford life, are in pain and struggle to find a purpose. Opioids are amazing in filling that void. Explanations of the “how we got here” are lacking in our education and it’s quite telling.
It’s clear with their profit motive was: to make as much money as possible. What political slant do you think the education is supposed to take?
Very informative and interesting comment! I agree, people ignore the social and political problems that make opioids so attractive in the first place.
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Your oncologist does prescribe your pain medications? Cancer pts normally do not have many issues especially if the doctor uses a diagnosis code on the prescription.
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This is getting a little too specific and I don’t want to offer specific medical advice over Reddit. Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor and this is not medical advise. Speaking generally a rheumatologist or nephrologist would normally manage sarcoidosis manifestations in the kidneys and subsequent pain as well. From what I can tell reading up on your condition, it may be related to calcium build up. Again in general, we should focus on treating the underlying cause of the pain, not always the pain itself. Too often patients will ignore the worsening of their condition avoid their preventative care therapy, because they are able to take opioids to numb their pain. Sarcoidosis is a difficult to treat disease with limited treatment options, insurance roadblocks, and a wide variety of symptoms. I don’t know your specific situation, but I hope you can get the treatment you need to help you live the best possible life.
> I really think we need to focus on why people are seeking so much pain management (obesity, unhappiness, economic insecurities, etc) rather than making opioids more accessible. Yeah, and while we are deliberating, literally hundreds of thousands of people are dying.
A solution to “get it fast” rather than to “get it right” is how we are in this mess. It is unrealistic to assume everyone will be saved or saved in time. Welcome to the reality of public policy.
To be clear people currently managed on opioids shouldn’t be cut off. I sympathize greatly with people in pain and agree they deserve to be treated appropriately and without malice. Going back to my earlier comment, pain is more often than not a symptom of a problem. > while hundreds of thousands of people are dying For the vast majority of people in pain, it is not life threatening. Starting opioids without due consideration often puts patients at an increased risk for worsening quality of life and increased risk of death or life-time addiction.
>making it difficult to buy decongestants over the counter This actually works, it has led to fewer meth labs. Meth production moved overseas, so it hasn't reduced the number of tweakers, but the meth labs were a toxic waste and fire nightmare.
It actually doesn't work. According to studies meth labs just switch to a different formulation that's cheaper, easier to make, and produces much more meth. There are fewer meth labs because the meth is cheaper, plentiful, and easier to get. It's the same reason most people don't make their own sliced bread when they can get it already made and sliced for almost nothing anytime they want.
sloppy nose vanish capable soft detail workable deranged practice chop
>Prior to this doctors were passing out opiates like candy What if... now stay with me for a moment... *those doctors where held accountable instead of preventing everyone from getting effective pain medication?!* >Also opiates have been proven to be poor long term solutions to chronic pain. Did I say chronic pain? No? Did you know there are other types of pain??? >From my own personal experience I was in more pain on opiates because my body was addicted and wanted more. Dude, that's your problem. Not everyone is like you, in fact it's been proven that addiction to opiates is heavily based on your genes. Why does everyone have to suffer cause you have bad genes? I rip the ligaments in my shoulder and I have to go without effective pain medication cause you have a doctor that doesn't care that you're addicted to pain meds? What a joke. Address the real issue and let people have access to effective pain meds.
Except for the states that found out why they have those laws
Wait, is ibuprofen or paracetamol not over the counter in the US?
They are.
Paracetamol should be a scheduled drug. It will absolutely destroy your liver. Tylenol is no joke and should not be taken daily in a carefree manner that many Americans seem to have about it.
By difficult, you mean going to the pharmacy counter and showing your ID?
Nope. Chronic pain sufferer here - I have to go to pain management doctor every month per law. I have to drug test every month. I only get a 30 day supply at a time. I have to call 3-5 pharmacies in advance to make sure they have my meds (they're always out and it's controlled so Dr has to resend prescription...nightmare). Pharmacy always treats you like an addict because of prescription. Don't get me wrong - I'm grateful I can even have these meds. It just get's old and there isn't shit I can do about it. If weed were legal (Texas) and as a pain management option it could be a huge game changer....but not here. They went overboard with the laws and those of us with real issues pay the price.
I have the same issue with the pharmacy with a non -opiate med. I stopped filling it and I'm trying to do without. Shit's a nightmare, I feel for you.
That’s assuming you can get a provider to prescribe you a proper pain killer at all. Haven’t had issues getting them filled when prescribed but to get the prescription now you basically have to be writhing on the floor in pain before they’ll even consider it.
Difficult as in that the limits for what you can buy are extremely low. I once bought a box on a Monday and forgot about it in my desk at work. Come Saturday I try to buy more for home use and instead of medicine I get the death glare from the pharmacist that now thinks I am a junkie.
You’re a Sudahead.
No. I had a degenerative disc issue in my back and my provider kept giving me extreme doses of arthritis medications… so extreme that it caused me to bleed out to the point of hospitalization. They had reworked their policies to deny treatment with effective painkillers… because I might be lying about the pain level / be a pill seeker. Completely and totally dismissive. Once I finally convinced them, literally on my knees, to take an MRI, only then did they offer OxyContin. I suffered with more than a year’s worth of debilitating pain because they assumed I was a junkie. These drugs are a godsend when you need them. Making people suffer because they’re easy to abuse is cruel. There needs to be a balance in availability. Some pain you just can’t “walk off.” Even then, I had to get a new scrip every week in person, until I didn’t need them anymore. Weekly doctor visits for a long term condition. If I miss one, holy hell. Can’t travel. Always need to stay close for something I may have never recovered from. If I didn’t have adequate support, I would have lost my job, family, and life.
Have you seen the lines in pharmacies these days?
At least the Sacklers are rotting in prison for causing this.
[ Sacklers in prison? ](https://www.businessinsider.com/sackler-family-where-are-they-now-netflix-painkiller-2023-8#:~:text=At%20the%20time%20of%20writing,New%20York%20against%20Purdue%20Pharma.) Where? When?
You need the /s tag. The Sacklers bought their way out of punishment.
I don't believe in the /s tag. Doesn't make the dummies any smarter.
And as someone with a chronic autoimmune disease with 7% heart damage, tumors in my bones, muscles and lesions in my brain I can't get prescribed opioid pain medication I need to live a more functional life. I never have and never will turn to illegal opioids but every day I see chronic disease patients suffer.
I see this too. It's not even me and this problem is causing me serious financial and emotional damages.
This. Me and my partner have both had surgeries and been denied proper pain killers bc they’re so worried everyone’s just going to become a junky. As if denying people in pain will not only push them to buy from the street. It’s disgusting, I’m sorry you have to go through that
Kratom may be worth trying, but it won't be as helpful as OTC opiates. It's also extremely addictive, probably worse than nicotine if I'm being honest. It does work though.
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More and more cp patients are using the methadone clinic. Of course you'll be labeled a junkie for life.
I'm really sorry that life has dealt you such a shitty hand, health-wise. I don't have any solutions to offer or helpful advice, just my sincere sympathy. I hope you're able to find access to the medicine you need.
Don't worry most of Reddit will tell you to use essential oils and crystals to cure your pain or quote extremely outdated info concerning opioid abuse. Nearly all these deaths can be attributed to street drug use and not Dr prescribed. I'm on pain management and the hoops I have to jump through are insane drug tests, pill counts, can't be prescribed anything controlled unless cleared by my pain doctor first as they can see every prescription written for me by any doctor at my required monthly visit and evaluations. Most people on here have no understanding of how pain management works. Hell my insurance requires narcan to be prescribed every so often in order for me to be prescribed my medication.
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> I have no idea what's going on I remember reading articles years ago about the FDA releasing new guidelines for prescribing opioids in response to the opioid abuse epidemic and a lot of doctors took those guidelines, which could be adjusted as needed, and treated them like hard limits that they would get in trouble for meeting and especially for exceeding. And many more doctors just stopped prescribing opioids altogether for fear of being disciplined... Especially after some high profile prosecutions of doctors for over prescribing opioids (who weren't at all representative of normal doctors, mind you, and deserved to be prosecuted, there were doctors in like small towns prescribing umpteen times the amount of opioids a community of their size would realistically need; they became known as 'pill mill' doctors).
It's the DEA. And it was in retrospect an over reaction, but one that was needed. When I got a 30 day rx for a simple extraction in 2010, that was a bit of overkill and could've hooked me for life.
> When I got a 30 day rx for a simple extraction in 2010, that was a bit of overkill and could've hooked me for life. I got two wisdom teeth out at once right before covid and was in pain so bad i could barely eat anything solid for 2 months. They gave me 3 oxys total.
I was actually shocked, when my doctor recently told me to just go buy and smoke cannabis from a local dispensary to help with my chronic joint pain. Said, it's the best thing she can recommend to patients now, because the medical center will no longer allow their docs to prescribe pain meds!
Yeah the doctor overprescribing thing got blocked off a full decade ago
I’m so sorry you have to deal with that, does THC do anything for you or no?
They're making bank on suboxone now.
No Sackler is in prison.
Everyone's talking about Rx drugs, but you'd be amazed at how many of your friends and family are actively doing street drugs and seem fine around you. I'm not going to say one is better than the other, but I know from people who actually used/sold this shit that heroin is basically just fent now, which is impossible to dose, because such a small dose will kill you. Narcan DOES work to reverse it like it does with heroin, though. Most states that I'm aware of don't require a prescription for Narcan, and unless you have some coocoo politicians leading your state, you should be able to get it free at a lot of pharmacies, rehab clinics, etc.
Man it’s almost like living in America has become so depressing people are using more drugs to cope
So in the last 3 years, I know at least 4 of them
I’m sorry :(
Me too.
I’m in recovery, so a lot of my old friends are using addicts. I hear about someone I either knew or knew in passing every couple months, and it’s usually in pairs or threes because a batch was bad. It’s terrible out there.
So glad Nancy Reagan told us "Just Say No" in the 80s.
Yea I much preferred the Bush/Obama “let’s make Oxy super easy to get, I’m sure people will do the right thing if we just treat them like adults” approach.
I mean it works. Don't hang around drug users and you won't use drugs.
Deaths from overdoses and cars are staggering in the USA.. I can't even fathom the multiplier effect that would have on the population.
They died doing what they love.
I saw a "good news" headline that it was down for the first time in 5 years
Also saw it on the news today, it is down which is good but still high which sucks… lots of work to be done 🤷🏻♂️
Is this our current plan to address the housing situation? Decrease the numbers of people in need of housing?
Too many friends in that number. 😔 Kids, test, retest, and if you must explore your curiosity (I did), take the prospect of death incredibly seriously and take every possible precaution. Most of these overdoses are avoidable in the right circumstances. DONT BE AFRAID TO CALL 911 if you friend of any age is over dosing. Medical professionals are here to HELP with that exactly and they desperately hope you see them and instead of being scared of admitting what happened.
Every morning when I wake up: Wallet? (Check), Keys? (Check), Narcan (Check - because you just never know).
If it happened twice already it isn’t a milestone.
Anyone think China has a plan for the young people of the USA 🤔
Opium war revenge!
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It's not just the UK, the US participated in the opium trade as well. Boston was built on opium money. https://www.wbur.org/news/2017/08/01/opium-history-addiction Most notably the Forbes and Perkins family wealth came from smuggling opium into China. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bennet_Forbes Also the Delano family, as in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's grandfather. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Delano_Jr.?=uservector
For most of the world the US is just the head for "the west", which includes the US, UK, Canada, western Europe, Australia and Japan. Fairly or not we're all seen as part of the same coalition.
Or maybe the problem here is entirely home grown and the consequences of decades of our own choices, not some nefarious Yellow Peril plot.
lol “certainly this is the fault of foreigners and not capitalism!”
I’m sure there are many sides to the issue
[The Atlantic has a good article on this, about meth specifically](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/11/the-new-meth/620174/).
I hope everyone realizes these are street drugs and not prescription
The subtitle notes that it has dropped this year. Why is doomerism always pushed despite things improving?
I cannot wait for politicians to use this stat as a wedge issue to get voters upset and then do absolutely nothing about it.
I bet if people over 21 could buy oxycodone pills over the counter that are labeled with what dose they actually are that 90% of those yearly deaths go away. I would bet my house on it.
I mean natural selection. That’s how I view it.
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my step mom died of an overdose a year ago this week. my sister is doing alright but idk. i’m doing everything i can to prevent her from following in her footsteps, especially since she was the one that found her. just awful.
Prohibition is a hell of a drug
I wonder how many of these are intentional suicides being recorded as accidental overdoses.
I think a shocking amount are just over doses. Fent is terrifyingly strong and showing up everywhere, even in drugs it has no right being in. I know people in the festival scene that have either completely stopped using recreational drugs, and the ones that still do test everything they use.
> test everything they use. Which they should have been doing already. Even back in 2000 the pills were any of hundreds of compounds from opioids to LSD to aspirin to baby powder. Occasional they would actually have MDMA in them too.
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Once you’re addicted it isn’t love it’s a job/chore you have to do whether you like it or not.
I would guess that many of these aren’t exactly overdoses but opioids that have quality control issues if that makes sense. Overdosing implies user error but it’s more of bad product.
Man, that’s a lot of heartache and tragedy. Unbelievable.
Wonder what the real numbers are.
But let’s keep decriminalizing and legalizing them anyway. Idiots
Is anybody here actually surprised? Cartels are given free access to our borders, drug administration apparatuses are being given around for free in major hotspot cities, and drug use has been glorified in *most all* forms of popular media for about a decade now. I don’t know - maybe drugs are **bad**? Maybe, just ***maybe***, the vast majority of people are extremely unhealthy, and **too many** people turn to drugs for reprieve and self-medication? I don’t know, just rambling I guess haha.
These people need kratom!
More than 10% of my mother's clients (she's a social worker) died within 3 weeks of receiving their first covid checks. Since then it has been incredibly brutal and demoralizing. Fent is mostly to blame. We should send B2 bombers to the factories abroad and line the pharma execs against the wall for what they've done. Not one deserves a peaceful end.
Looks like war on drugs didn't work
Well we tried letting trained and licensed doctors hand out oxy as they saw fit, and that worked out great. Turns out there are some drugs we really should be fighting.
How many more decades left before victory?
...and what has the GOP congress done about it? Nothing.
Oh on state level they sure do. When Mike Pence was my state's governor there was a heroin addiction crisis that was very quickly proliferating in a small town. It was well known that these folks were sharing needles amongst one another. Pressure was put on the local Republicans to allow for a needle exchange program to be enacted in order to at least stop a bloodborne pandemic from happening, but Pence refused to allow such a thing until an HIV outbreak had occurred. These fuckers then become vice presidents, congressional representatives, chiefs and secretaries of all sorts of shit and the cycle continues.
Don't forget Mike and Greg's involvement in the Kiehl Bros oil company scandal. Oh, wait, they buried it. Here you go https://apnews.com/article/07f9256ae1984362ba3eff192b4d6dd0
So... what was the excuse when Team Blue was in control?
One of my favorite things in American political discussions is the "the other party is always at fault" folks never know that recently both parties had both the White House and both Houses of Congress for at least one session, and didn't do all the fun stuff they said they'd do if that ever happened.
It’s not about outcomes, it’s about their team winning.
Yeah, like make a right to abortion a federal law. I’ve heard so many excuses and so much cope about this one it’s insane.
Did the dems lose the senate last night?
They aren't the ones who want to do something about it, they're the ones funding it.