I can't recall a similar degree of concern and push for treatment during the crack/cocaine epidemic in the 80-90's and the meth epidemic of the 00's. What is it about the opioid/heroin epidemic that differentiates it from those prior?
It's because opioids are legal. Anyone can obtain them with very little effort and they don't have to worry about being 'caught'. The only way to get meth or crack was to engage in an illegal transaction. Now you don't have to be a criminal to be an addict and I think that scares people (Although nothing has really changed other than society's view of it).
Every single one of these threads or news articles blathers on and on about how all these clueless/evil doctors are hand-in-hand with Big Bad Pharma just tossing opiate prescriptions at everyone who walks in the door. At this point it's ridiculous, because the few outfits who did anything like this stopped or were shut down years ago.
The pendulum has swung in the other direction-- doctors have been inundated with the 'crisis' message and are terrified to prescribe any strong pain or anxiety meds to anyone. It was once routine for me and others I know to be prescribed hydrocodone for conditions like painful seized muscles, root canals or severe strep throat. We were apparently all in the ~80%+ who used it as intended and stopped. It worked great! No one I know has received an opiate for those conditions in a very long time. They all tell you just take ibuprofen now, which is completely insufficient. So what to people do instead? They drink or turn to illegal drugs. Functionally banning drugs does nothing to fight addiction, and in some cases can make it worse.
Sorry to rant, but I have both seen and experienced the hell of untreated pain due to skittish doctors. The cowardice and misinformation resulting in such direct harm really angers me.
The few articles I read on the subject are actually quite clear that the current crisis is due to the increased control on prescriptions, and some talk about the side effects on people with actual needs:
"The simplistic idea was, 'Oh, this is all about prescription opioids, and therefore that's all we need to do: reduce the supply of prescription opioids and we'll reduce all these deaths and people won't become addicted,'" said Alexander Walley, a physician and director of addiction consultation services at Boston Medical Center.
"Well, what we're seeing now is that even as you reduce access to prescription opioids, you're seeing an explosion of heroin use and heroin overdoses ."
Still, it's hard for someone that has not experienced these conditions to understand how prescribing these highly addictive substances could be justified.
Is it the only form of treatment ? How is treatment handled in other countries ?
> It was once routine for me and others I know to be prescribed hydrocodone for conditions like painful seized muscles, root canals or severe strep throat. We were apparently all in the ~80%+ who used it as intended and stopped. It worked great!
I think this is exactly the kind of drug abuse people want to get away from. Some people also used heroin or meth and managed to stop. This doesn't mean it's OK to abuse opiates for things like "seized muscles, root canals or strep throat" ... WTH? Opiates are used to manage severe pain, not this I've-torn-my-nail-a-bit-I-need-opiates-now.
Pain is a part of life, stop being a princess and deal with it.
It's now disportionately impacting white people, and in the 80s-90s it was disproportionately impacting black people which the US govt and media used to paint a negative image. So now it's hitting closer to home, so it's getting more attention and treated with a lot more sympathy.
