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Post by Amadan on Oct 29, 2017 8:59:11 GMT -5
Let us not confuse addiction, which is a health issue, with the criminalization of addicts, which is most definitely a government problem. If anyone has any question as to which has done the most damage to society, one need only look at the highest incarceration rate in the world, the transformation of police forces to militarized, occupying forces, the growing disrespect toward those occupying forces, the destruction of family structure among the poor and minorities, and the hollowing out of our inner cities to see a very clear answer. Today's society is NOT the result of addicts using drugs that are bad for them. Today's society is the result of the government declaring war on its addicted citizens. We have a prohibition crisis, not an opioid crisis. My point, which you are missing because you are a single issue thinker, is that it is possible for two things to be true simultaneously. Everything you say about the government may be true, and we may also have an opioid crisis brought on by addictive behavior and over-prescription of painkillers. If all drugs were legalized tomorrow, the problems you describe might mostly go away, but we'd still have a problem with addicts and it would still be true that people should stay away from most of those drugs. |
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Post by robeiae on Oct 29, 2017 12:51:54 GMT -5
Let us not confuse addiction, which is a health issue, with the criminalization of addicts, which is most definitely a government problem. If anyone has any question as to which has done the most damage to society, one need only look at the highest incarceration rate in the world, the transformation of police forces to militarized, occupying forces, the growing disrespect toward those occupying forces, the destruction of family structure among the poor and minorities, and the hollowing out of our inner cities to see a very clear answer. Today's society is NOT the result of addicts using drugs that are bad for them. Today's society is the result of the government declaring war on its addicted citizens. We have a prohibition crisis, not an opioid crisis. My point, which you are missing because you are a single issue thinker, is that it is possible for two things to be true simultaneously. Everything you say about the government may be true, and we may also have an opioid crisis brought on by addictive behavior and over-prescription of painkillers. If all drugs were legalized tomorrow, the problems you describe might mostly go away, but we'd still have a problem with addicts and it would still be true that people should stay away from most of those drugs. Agree. The idea that there isn't any sort of opioid crisis because of the failed war on drugs or the like doesn't seem sustainable to me, in the face of actual evidence. And again, the incentives are what they are. The dependence on health insurance for healthcare is not a new issue and extends into medicaid, as well. It's just not surprising that doctors over-prescribe, whether it's opioids or anything else. Noting this is not--imo--bad-mouthing doctors or implying that they are bad. Many are backed into a corner in this regard. The reality of the insurance industry limits what they can do for patients, from a simple cost perspective. And true enough, the advertising efforts of pharmaceutical companies only make the problem worse. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2017 12:58:03 GMT -5
I hate those "ask your doctor about x medication"! ads.
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Post by Optimus on Oct 30, 2017 2:36:28 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2017 7:23:13 GMT -5
I love Adam Ruins Everything.
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Post by robeiae on Jan 14, 2019 9:20:19 GMT -5
www.cnn.com/2019/01/14/health/opioid-deaths-united-states-surpass-road-accidents/index.htmlThe last paragraph is critically important, I think. The odds--for a typical individual--of dying from an opioid overdose aren't really greater than the odds of dying from a car accident or from a fall, because the people subject to a potential overdose are in a more limited group. But...this means that within that group, the odds of deadly overdose are even higher.
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