A Deep Dive into the Opioid "Crisis"

Posted by freedomforall 5 months, 1 week ago to Business
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Excerpt:
"doctors saw the public swilling down heroin and berated their fellow physicians for not sounding the alarm.

“The patient comes to look on heroin as a harmless sedative for his cough,” wrote one such physician in 1912, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, because too many doctors think it’s safe:

“A patient who came under my observation told a physician, who was called to treat him for an attack of laryngitis, not to give him anything that contained opium, because he had formerly been a slave to this drug. The physician replied: ‘I will give you some heroin; there is no danger of habit from that’.”

Ordinary Americans weren’t buying it, and by 1906 we had established the federal Food & Drug Administration, because moms want to know if it’s got heroin. Cure-alls like the morphine-and-alcohol-based Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup definitely did quiet fussy babies, but it’s believed thousands never woke up again.

President Teddy Roosevelt appointed an “Opium Commissioner,” who looked around and saw track marks on the arms of everyone from aging Army of the Potomac vets to high society ladies, and declared, “Americans have become the greatest drug fiends in the world.” It was our first Opioid Crisis. It had been driven by genuine ignorance and a lack of good alternatives — but tellingly, also by the inappropriate use of heavily marketed and physician-endorsed treatments. In response, the nation went on a scorched-earth campaign against all addictive substances, starting with new anti-narcotics agencies staffed by G-men in trench coats, and culminating in the U.S. Constitutional amendment to ban alcohol. Again: We rewrote the Constitution to outlaw alcohol. That we once went so far suggests how bad things had gotten.

This all seems like a glaringly obvious cautionary tale for the House of Medicine. Yet somehow, not 70 years after the nation had walked away from the Prohibition experiment, medical schools — medical schools! — were abruptly teaching that opioids weren’t necessarily addictive.

When my attending said a patient wouldn’t get addicted if a doctor gave morphine for pain, he was simply channeling what all the best people were saying. For example, in 2000, the Joint Commission — an independent non-profit that sets accreditation standards for hospitals — published a book for physician education that claimed:

There is no evidence that addiction is a significant issue when persons are given opioids for pain control.

No evidence. And if the medical students ask about morphine-enslaved Civil War veterans? The Joint Commission’s book dismisses such concerns as “inaccurate and exaggerated.” "
SOURCE URL: https://www.racket.news/p/a-deep-dive-into-the-opioid-crisis


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  • Posted by mccannon01 5 months ago
    Do you want to end this problem? For real? IMHO, to answer that in the affirmative our society has to be willing to execute the purveyors of the products. Quickly and publicly.

    With that said, an avenue must be provided for the HANDFUL of people that really NEED relief from pain to be able to receive it. What we have now isn't working as well as it should.
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    • Posted by lrshultis 4 months, 2 weeks ago
      "HANDFUL", BS! There are millions where strong pain control is necessary.
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      • Posted by mccannon01 4 months, 2 weeks ago
        OK, semantics. In a population of 340 million even 3.4 million, which would be millions as you say, can be considered a handful - a small percentage of the whole. I'm really really really hoping you understand the gist of what I was saying. If not, I can't help you.
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        • Posted by 4 months, 2 weeks ago
          You're both right, imo.
          Big pharma and their shills, the AMA and BPh-funded-university trained greedy golfers
          pretending to be doctors, have addicted millions of people. Some really have severe
          pain that requires a lot of care to be productive and enjoy life. Many more have been
          addicted when they should have been advised toward non-addicting treatment.
          The medical care "industry" (BigPh and doctors) are guilty of this and should bear the
          costs of getting the millions off the addicting drugs.
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          • Posted by mccannon01 4 months, 2 weeks ago
            After my heart bypass operation I was advised to take "potentially" addictive pain killers and refused them after the first day because of the risk. The pain was nasty to say the least, but it didn't last long and I am glad for the decision. I'm quite the baby when it comes to pain, but I've seen addiction up close in my family, including death by overdose - not for me!
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  • Posted by $ Stormi 5 months ago
    I amy see this too close, my mom and nephew both wer alcoholics and then both died from opiate abuse. My nephew had rehabed twice, then a doc Rxd a opiate for him! My mom, was on some street coctail of drugs, even autopsy could not tell for sure which. I had a foot doc who was a dealer, he tole me there is paych. addiction and addictive drugs, and people should avoid both! IThat was a friendly conversation one day. I never used any of it, but found his description amazing.
    My feeling is most addicts have been enabled to be dependent on the "kindness of stranges" as they grew up, the babies, the I need just a little help, the parents who were reality deniers, and they ate it up. My aunt died of alcohol piosoning, after 5marriages, and a mom who took her child to raise at age 3. You can recognize their type in "Atlas Shrugged." Most docs are not as honest as my friend, they like handing out the easy fix, and often getting perks from the drug companies. I was lucky, dad always told me life is tough, he was not a user, and get used to it. He did all he could to aim me toward independence and self sufficiency. I was lucky. My nephew was the favaorite child who could do not wrong, life was too hard for him.
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  • Posted by Ben_C 5 months ago
    What is not being published is that opioids are being sent daily via USPS, FedEX ans UPS. Had a Border Patrol Agent in my office this morning say that a big bust occurred this morning in a USPS building in Michigan. Keeps the dope sniffing dogs really busy! .
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  • Posted by $ Abaco 5 months ago
    After a bad leg injury in college I quickly formed a physical addiction to opiates (vicadin). I didn't know it at the time and it just about killed me when I got off cold-turkey. Blood pressure went to 100/50. I turned white as a ghost and it was rough. Not knowing the cause I just grit my teeth and got through it. I don't "do drugs" other than the occasional beer or coffee. Some here would hear my story and say "junky". Nothing could be further from the truth, though. Opiates are a real threat to a society.
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  • Posted by CaptainKirk 5 months ago
    First, please accept that I am a libertarian when it comes to what I put in my body. My body, my choice (after the age of 25, when the brain stops developing, let's use some science).

    The FDA should be limited to enforcing labels and making sure Drugs have been TAXED. NOT Limiting which drugs are available. (Burzynski would be a national hero for his cancer therapies).

    Now, I am only against drugs (esp addictive ones). Because I am a food addict. But we should be fighting the ROOT Cause of addictions (mostly childhood traumas, stress and trauma). I knew that if I did it ONE TIME, I would not stop until I was dead. (Lucky me).

    That said. My proposed Solution was simple. The government should be allowed to POISON the (addictive) drugs they collect, and put them back on the street. use the money they make selling them to fund any programs to rehabilitate people.

    As insane as this sounds. They would have to advertise that this is what they are doing. And the Media would have to publish the odds of you dying from one dose of any given drug, based on the poisoned % of drugs out there ready for sale.

    Here's my argument. In that environment. If you are still doing drugs, and not seeking treatment (which should be mostly free)... Then GOOD BYE. You will quickly be a statistic. Consider it Euthanasia for those with nothing to live for. (Which, for me, is the definition of a Heroin/Crack/Drug Addict that is NOT SEEKING HELP)

    I propose that there will be MILLIONS of deaths. And that very very few people will EVER want to try one of these drugs... Because the tainted ones are out there. And quite frankly, those that decide it's worth the risk are making their decision.

    Does it seem harsh? No more harsh than making me pay for the DEA, all the police, judges, jails, rehab, and homelessness (tied to drug addiction)... With the one exception that we push the COST onto the CONSUMER.

    Once there are no consumers left. I think the demand goes to Zero. And the suppliers leave because they have no one to sell to.

    Prove me wrong!
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    • Posted by 5 months ago
      Well, assuming this was done by gov (unlikely,) as soon as it happened there
      would be cheap testing kits available to any addict to find the poison and avoid it.
      It would add a bit to the cost for the addict.
      Another free market solution to government intrusion.
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      • Posted by CaptainKirk 5 months ago
        FFA, 100% agree. But the point is you separated the 1st timer from a "user".

        I like to think outside the box...
        I suggested we could help the Veteran Homelessness by giving them a gun, and a tiny home along the Southern Border. And a "Bonus" for every illegal they shot crossing over.

        We'd fix the homelessness problem among vets. Give them a sense of duty. A chance to build community. Maybe even setup a web site and gamify the kill ratios? (Hunger Games, Southern Border Edition?)

        ROTFLMAO
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        • Posted by 5 months ago
          I like your ideas, CaptainK. 👍
          Personally, I am seriously looking for a foreign
          country to move to that is affordable and with
          a less offensive government. I have no confidence
          that the US will solve the obvious problems
          and restore freedoms peacefully.
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  • Posted by $ Thoritsu 5 months ago
    The solution to this problem, and the capitalism in medicine is to leave the choice with the people. Let people do what they want with drugs, who cares?

    For the entire medical, pharmaceutical and insurance industry, give the money to the patient receiving care, and let them spend it as they chose, absent any government interference. This will end doctor's ridiculous stranglehold on salaries through the AMA; drug pricing issues, and silly costs of insurance, which are a complete non-governmental (but government instituted) socialist/communist disaster.

    People pay for what they want. high cost? DOA.
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  • Posted by term2 5 months ago
    I think that all criminal penalties should be eliminated immediately on ALL drugs. No prescriptions, no illegality, no drug czar, etc. It should be up to each person what they take, and if they take something that's dangerous or addictive, so be it. If its really dangerous AND addictive, its a death sentence and the problem ends that way.
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